Department for Transport

Croydon Tramlink: Sutton

Elliot Colburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will hold discussions with (a) Transport for London and (b) the Mayor of London on TfL's decision to suspend funding for the tramlink extension to Sutton.

Rachel Maclean: In May the Government agreed a £1.6 billion funding and finance package with Transport for London (TfL) to enable them to continue operating essential services, transporting passengers safely and protecting staff during the pandemic. Transport in London is devolved to the Mayor and there are difficult choices to be made to ensure that he is minimising the call on the government funding package in the interest of the taxpayer. Government is currently undertaking a review of TfL’s finances which will consider TfL’s revenues and costs over the next five years.

Buses: Exhaust Emissions

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the recommendations made by Climate Assembly UK in their report entitled Path to net zero, published 10 September 2020, for the Government to invest in low carbon buses.

Rachel Maclean: The Government is already committed to ensuring net zero carbon emissions in the transport system by 2015. That is why we are going further than the recommendations, investing in at least 4,000 Zero-Emission Buses (ZEBs) through the £5 billion of new funding to overhaul bus and cycle links for regions outside London. This is on top of the £50 million to deliver Britain’s first all-electric bus town and £240 million since 2010 to support the move to lower emission buses. It will be important to account for all of this in the long-term National Bus Strategy we are developing.

Heathrow Airport: Railways

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress he is making on plans for the development of a southern rail access to Heathrow.

Chris Heaton-Harris: Southern Access to Heathrow (SAtH) would provide extensive benefits to the areas surrounding Heathrow and the South East of England, making getting to the airport quicker, easier and greener for millions of travellers in the boroughs surround the airport, across the south of England as well as creating regeneration opportunities and making Britain a more attractive place to invest and connect UK exporters to new international markets. While a fast pace on SAtH is important, the scheme is very much in its infancy, and there is as yet much to be developed. It is crucial to the success of the project that time is taken in this early stage to ensure that the initial outcome based specification and commercial model on which the scheme will developed, are appropriate and the right solution to ensure value for money to the fare payer, the scheme proposer and the tax payer. My Department continues to work closely with the market, including scheme promoters, operators and capital investors, along with the wider private sector and following Ministerial approval and alignment to the HM Treasury Infrastructure Finance Review; my Department intends to provide further guidance to the market regarding the commercial approach for SAtH early in 2021. We also are continuing to work alongside Network Rail and Heathrow Airport Limited, to integrate with Western Rail Link to Heathrow, while ensuring alignment with other major infrastructure projects, to guarantee the most efficient design and delivery of SAtH.

Department for Transport: Staff

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many members of staff in their Department have one or more of the words equality, diversity, inclusion, gender, LGBT or race in their job title.

Chris Heaton-Harris: There are 10.95 full time equivalent staff (FTE) in the central Department and its Executive Agencies with equality, diversity, inclusion, LGBT or race in their job title. FTE has been used as a more accurate representation because some individuals carry out D&I work alongside other roles. FTE is also a better representation of resourcing compared to headcount. The breakdown by business unit is as follows:DfTc: 5.8 FTEDVLA: 2.65 FTEDVSA: 1 FTEMCA: 1.5 FTEVCA: 0 FTE

Public Transport: Greater London

Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his policy is on the future of free travel for under 18-year olds in London.

Rachel Maclean: The Department is engaging with Transport for London, The Department for Education, The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and London Councils on how a temporary suspension of under 18s free bus and tram travel could be implemented whilst ensuing that any child eligible for free home to school travel under the Education Act 1996 still receive this.

Railways: Coronavirus

Sam Tarry: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the terms and conditions of the financial support (a) received by train operating companies under the emergency measures agreements and (b) available to train operating companies under the emergency recovery measures agreements.

Chris Heaton-Harris: The details of payments made to Train Operating Companies from March to June 2020 under Emergency Measures Agreements (EMAs) can be found on the gov.uk website[1]. This also includes details of how payments are calculated and made under EMAs, as well as information on support received by train operating companies that are not currently operating under EMAs. Further publication of payments and associated information will be made on the gov.uk website in due course. The Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements have not yet been finalised and all terms and conditions remain commercially confidential at this time.[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/rail-emergency-measures-during-the-covid-19-pandemic

Driving: Sleep Apnoea

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of road accidents caused by drivers affected by obstructive sleep apnoea.

Rachel Maclean: The Department does not collect data on drivers affected by obstructive sleep apnoea in road accidents specifically. There were 1,528 reported road accidents involving personal injury where a contributory factor of driver fatigue was reported in Great Britain in 2018. Detailed final statistics on reported personal injury road accidents in Great Britain for 2019 will be published on 30 September 2020.The latest annual published statistics are for 2018.   Contributory factors assigned by police officers do not assign blame for the accident to any specific road user, however they do provide some insight into why and how road accidents occur. They give an indication of which factors the attending officer thought contributed to the accident. Officers do not need to carry out a full investigation of the incident before allocating contributory factors; they usually use professional judgement about what they can see at the scene. Not all accidents are included in the contributory factor data; only accidents where the police attended the scene and reported at least one contributory factor are included.

Department for Transport: Training

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much the Department spent on unconscious bias training in each of the last five years.

Chris Heaton-Harris: Over the last five years, the total cost spent on unconscious bias training in DfT and its Executive Agencies is £44,962 and can be found in the attached table. Figures for each Agency in the last five years can be found in the attached Table 2 Where data is not available, this is due to the Civil Service Learning Privacy Notice stating that management information will be retained by the Cabinet Office for no more than three financial years. Data may be retained by individual Department’s for the purposes of reporting beyond this period. Total spend of unconscious bias training (docx, 18.8KB)Spend of agencies - unconscious bias training (docx, 20.1KB)

Railways: Coronavirus

Sam Tarry: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the length of time the (a) emergency measures agreements and (b) emergency recovery measures agreements on rail franchises will be in place.

Chris Heaton-Harris: Emergency Measures Agreement (EMAs) commenced on 1 April 2020 (with financial provisions applying retrospectively to 1 March 2020). For most rail operators they apply for an initial period of approximately 6 months (7 Rail Reporting Periods), with options for further extension or earlier termination in each case by agreement. These arrangements have allowed us to ensure that essential travel can continue. We are examining the options available to ensure continuity of services beyond this initial period, including the implementation of Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements, but these are not yet finalised.

Southeastern: Season Tickets

Sir David Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of the proposals submitted by Southeastern to introduce flexibility in rail ticketing.

Chris Heaton-Harris: Government recognises that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a fundamental change in working patterns and that this could have long-term effects on commuter behaviours.In response, the Department for Transport has proactively worked with the rail industry, and is currently considering proposals received from train operators, including from Southeastern, to try to ensure better value and convenience for part-time and flexible commuters.

Railways: Coronavirus

Sam Tarry: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the fee paid to train operating companies as part of the emergency recovery measures agreements will be smaller than that paid as part of the emergency measures agreements; and by what formula that fee will be decided.

Chris Heaton-Harris: Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements have not yet been finalised and all terms and conditions remain commercially confidential at this time.

Restoring Your Railway Fund: Carshalton Beeches Station

Elliot Colburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when a decision will be made on the bid for funding from the second round of Restoring Your Railway Ideas Fund for step-free access at Carshalton Beeches station.

Chris Heaton-Harris: We will be announcing the outcome of the second round of the Restoring Your Railway Ideas Fund in the coming weeks.

Driving Licences: Applications

Sir Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to reduce delays for new licence applications and renewals at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

Rachel Maclean: The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has a range of services available online offering quick and easy ways of transacting. The DVLA’s online services have worked well and as normal throughout the pandemic. Over 36 million online driver and vehicle transactions have been processed since March with nearly two million driving licences issued. The DVLA’s 6,000 staff are largely based at a single site in Swansea and to adhere to Welsh social distancing requirements the number of staff onsite has been greatly reduced. This has impacted on the time taken to process applications sent by post as these have to be dealt with in person. The DVLA has reconfigured its accommodation to maximise staff numbers whilst meeting the requirement in Wales to maintain the two-metre social distancing and ensure it remains Covid secure. Additionally, drivers with a licence that expires between 1 February and 31 December 2020 have been given an automatic extension from the date of expiry. This means they will not need to renew their entitlement to drive until 11 months after the original expiry date. The DVLA has also accelerated the development of additional online services to further reduce paper applications and supported their take up through a publicity campaign.

Driving: Smart Devices

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the timetable is for the completion of the Government's review into the use of a device which performs an interactive communication while driving; and when legislative proposals as a result of that review will be brought forward.

Rachel Maclean: The Government plans to bring forward proposals arising from its review of the offence of using a hand-held mobile phone while driving very soon. The timing of any resultant legislative changes will be considered in light of feedback on the proposals.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Higher Education: Research

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to reform the Research Excellence Framework to (a) reduce levels of administration, (b) further incentivise collaboration and (c) focus on assessing groupings and teams.

Amanda Solloway: As recently set out in the Research and Development Roadmap, the Government will be examining the mechanisms which we use to support university research in England and the incentives that these create within the R&D system, and we will work with the higher education sector in England to agree a set of reforms to support university research and knowledge exchange to become more resilient, more efficient and ensure better outcomes from public funding. Research England, working with the HE Funding Bodies from the Devolved Nations, are conducting a thorough evaluation of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021, including on the costs of the exercise and its incentive effects on research practice. The results of that evaluation will inform the design of future exercises, which will also be subject to detailed consultation with the university research sector. Through this assessment and any subsequent recommended reforms, we aspire to implement a REF which helps progress to a system which is fair, unbureaucratic and rewards improvement.

Packaging

Stuart Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what financial support is available to encourage businesses to manufacture environmentally friendly product packaging.

Amanda Solloway: The Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging programme will tackle the challenge of plastic pollution in the environment through the development of a more sustainable plastic packaging value chain in the UK. We will invest £60 million from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, which is expected to be matched by funding of up to £149 million from industry over the next 5 years. This support will encourage businesses to develop more environmentally friendly packaging as well as novel infrastructure to recycle it at the end of its life. This investment will drive research and innovation to develop more sustainable materials and packaging designs, business models which drive the adoption of reusable and refillable packaging, new recycling processes and infrastructure to deliver a reduction in the negative environmental impacts caused by plastic packaging.

Small Businesses: Fraud

Gareth Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment the Government has made of the potential benefits to SMEs of codifying the legal doctrine of passing off.

Amanda Solloway: Passing off is a well-established principle in common law and is used to protect businesses (including SMEs) who operate in the UK against other businesses misrepresenting themselves to the public as that first business. It is often seen as a flexible and entirely appropriate mechanism to deal with unregistered trade mark infringement. The Government has not made any specific assessment of the potential benefits to SMEs of codifying the legal doctrine of passing off. Owners of registered and unregistered trade marks, in particular SMEs have various affordable avenues to address trade mark infringement, including passing off claims. These avenues include the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court which includes a small claims track specifically designed to help SMEs address IP disputes in a more affordable way. SMEs may also take advantage of the IP Pro Bono initiative and mediation services, including the mediation service offered by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). Full guidance for SMEs on how to address IP infringement, including affordable access to justice is available at the IPO’s website (www.ipo.gov.uk).

Carbon Emissions: British Overseas Territories

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 1 October 2019 to Question 291441 on Carbon Emissions: British Overseas Territories and with reference to the UK's hosting of the UN Climate Summit in 2021, which UK Overseas Territories have now requested to participate in the Paris Agreement; and what procedures will be used for carbon emissions accounting and reporting for those territories.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The Department continues to consult with UK Overseas Territories on whether they would like to have UK ratification of the Paris Agreement extended to them. For any that so choose, the extension process would ensure that UK Overseas Territories are able to contribute to UK Paris Agreement reporting to the UNFCCC as set out by the guidelines contained in the Enhanced Transparency Framework of the Paris Rulebook, agreed at COP24, Katowice. UK Overseas Territories that have previously had UK ratification of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) extended to them, including those who have had UK ratification of the Kyoto Protocol extended to them, are already included in the UK’s annual GHG inventory submission to the UNFCCC, National Inventory Report and Common Reporting Format tables. These publications are made available on the UNFCCC website and the National Atmospheric and Emissions Inventory website.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress his Department has made towards submitting updated Nationally Determined Contributions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Kwasi Kwarteng: As incoming COP26 President, the UK is urging all Parties to come forward with more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The UK is working on the same basis and is preparing to come forward with an increased NDC well ahead of COP26.

Business: Coronavirus

Kevin Hollinrake: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Stragtegy, what steps he is taking to help businesses manage debt resulting from the effects of the covid-19 outbreak.

Kevin Hollinrake: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy what plans he has to support companies facing insolvency as a result of debt arising from the effects of the covid-19 outbreak.

Kevin Hollinrake: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to help businesses who are in debt from the effects of the covid-19 to raise capital.

Paul Scully: The Government has provided a comprehensive package of support to help businesses that have been affected by Covid-19. This package includes the small business grants, the coronavirus loan schemes, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, as well as deferral of income tax payments. The Government will continue to work closely with local authorities, businesses, and business representative organisations to understand the impact of Covid-19 on businesses. This will include consideration of how payments for deferred VAT and loan repayments will impact businesses from March 2021. We are developing a consistent industry-wide approach to the collections and recoveries of Bounce Back loans. This will ensure that lenders understand the full range of support they can provide to borrowers struggling to repay their loans. The British Business Bank has created the online Finance Hub[1] which details potential types and sources of business finance and guidance. Firms can access wide variety of government free support and advice online and in person on .gov.uk, the Business Support Helpline and the network of 38 Growth Hubs in England. The devolved administrations have their own business support service. The Recovery Advice for Business scheme, supported by the government and hosted on the Enterprise Nation website[2], offers small firms access to free, one-to-one advice with an expert adviser to help them through the coronavirus pandemic and to prepare for long-term recovery. In addition, Government has brought forward £5 billion of capital investment projects, supporting jobs and the overall economic recovery. £111million has been announced to triple the scale of traineeships, ensuring that more young people have access to high quality training needed for future jobs.[1] https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/finance-hub/[2] https://www.enterprisenation.com/freesupport/

Ceramics: Coronavirus

Jonathan Gullis: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to support ceramic businesses affected by the covid-19 outbreak.

Nadhim Zahawi: The Government has taken unprecedented action to support businesses, including the those in the ceramics sector, since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. Measures include regulatory easements, tax deferrals and changes to Statutory Sick Pay. The Coronovirus Business Interruption Loan Schemes, alongside the Covid Corporate Financing Facility and Bounce Back Loans, also provide businesses with the opportunity to access Government-backed financing. In addition to this, the Job Retention Scheme has supported millions of workers since March and has been significant in keeping people in jobs, ensuring that sectors will be able to recover smoothly. The Government has also launched the Kickstart Scheme, which provides funding to employers to create new, 6-month job placements for young people currently on Universal Credit. Taken together, these measures as well as others are providing support to businesses across the country and in the ceramics sector.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Training

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much the Department spent on unconscious bias training in each of the last five years.

Nadhim Zahawi: The Department encourages all staff to complete Unconscious Bias training through Civil Service Learning. We are only able to draw data from 1st April 2018, and 84% of Unconscious Bias training since that date was delivered online and therefore incurred no cost. The estimated cost of the face-to-face training over the same period is shown in the table below.  Face-to-face trainingCost2018/19221£44,2002019/20167£33,400

Fuel Poverty

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when his Department will publish the Government’s response to the consultation on the Fuel Poverty for England Strategy, which closed on 16 September 2019.

Kwasi Kwarteng: We intend to publish the Government response to the consultation on updating the Fuel Poverty Strategy for England shortly.

Small Businesses: Government Assistance

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to provide support to businesses in the first quarter of 2021 when deferred payments and initial loan repayments become due.

Paul Scully: The Government has provided a comprehensive package of support to help businesses that have been affected by Covid-19. This package includes the small business grants, the coronavirus loan schemes, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, as well as deferral of income tax payments. The Government will continue to work closely with local authorities, businesses, and business representative organisations to understand the impact of Covid-19 on businesses. This will include consideration of how payments for deferred VAT and loan repayments will impact businesses from March 2021. We are developing a consistent industry-wide approach to the collections and recoveries of Bounce Back loans. This will ensure that lenders understand the full range of support they can provide to borrowers struggling to repay their loans.

Heating: Hydrogen

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to increase the number of trials that are testing the safety of using hydrogen for domestic heat.

Kwasi Kwarteng: Hydrogen is one potential option for decarbonising heating, alongside other solutions, including heat pumps and heat networks. The Government is therefore supporting a range of research, development and testing projects involving hydrogen to help determine the feasibility of using low carbon hydrogen as an alternative to the use of natural gas for heating in homes. The Government is working closely with industry and other stakeholders to identify further testing and trials needed to provide evidence on issues including safety, feasibility, costs and benefits and the overall consumer experience.

Hydrogen Advisory Council

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will publish future meeting dates of the Hydrogen Advisory Council.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The inaugural meeting of the Hydrogen Advisory Council (HAC) was on 20 July 2020. It is expected to meet quarterly for at least the next two years with the next meeting scheduled on 14 October 2020.

Hydrogen

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the UK's hydrogen strategy; and what steps he is taking to formalise cross-departmental working on the Government's hydrogen strategy.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The Government is committed to the development of hydrogen as a decarbonised energy carrier for the UK and we are currently developing our strategic approach to hydrogen. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is Chair of the Climate Action Implementation Cabinet Committee (CAI) which covers topics including hydrogen. BEIS officials and I also continue to work across government departments, including an on-going review of governance arrangements, to ensure we work effectively to develop new policy to help bring forward the technologies and supply chain we will need to grow the UK hydrogen economy.

Department of Health and Social Care

Coronavirus: St Albans

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when adequate covid-19 testing capacity will be available to allow all St Albans residents with symptoms to get tested within a reasonable distance of their home.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Care Quality Commission: Coronavirus

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether CQC inspectors visiting care homes will be tested regularly for covid-19.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Health Professions: Coronavirus

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on self-employed healthcare practitioners; and if he will make a statement.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous: Coronavirus

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the guidance, Staying safe and alert, updated on 9 September 2020, whether (a) Alcoholics Anonymous and (b) Narcotics Anonymous will continue to be able to meet in groups of up to 30 people during the covid-19 outbreak.

Jo Churchill: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Coronavirus: Screening

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which organisations are contracted to deliver covid-19 home test kits to people's homes; and what proportion of deliveries are being handled by each of those organisations.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Randox Laboratories: Coronavirus

Deidre Brock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department had a relationship with Randox Laboratories Ltd before the awarding of a contract to provide covid-19 testing in March 2020.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Ramfoam: Coronavirus

Deidre Brock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department had a relationship with Ramfoam before the awarding of a contract to provide personal protective equipment in May 2020.

Jo Churchill: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Hologic: Coronavirus

Deidre Brock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department had a relationship with Hologic Ltd before the awarding of a contract to provide SARS-Cov-2 tests in April 2020.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Unispace Global Health: Protective Equipment

Deidre Brock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department had a relationship with Unispace Global Health before the awarding of a contract for personal protective equipment in April 2020.

Jo Churchill: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Ayanda Capital: Protective Clothing

Deidre Brock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department had a relationship with Ayanda Capital before the awarding of a contract to provide personal protective equipment in April 2020.

Jo Churchill: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Coronavirus: Bradford

Judith Cummins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the advice of the Chief Medical Officer on removing local restrictions due to the covid-19 outbreak in parts of the Bradford District.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Chief Medical Officer: Coronavirus

Judith Cummins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on how many occasions he has overruled the advice of the Chief Medical Officer on decisions relating to local restrictions during the covid-19 outbreak.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Coronavirus: Screening

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of regional demand for covid-19 tests ordered through the online booking system, and if he will publish that data by postcode area.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Health Services and Social Services: Coronavirus

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) NHS and (b) social care workers have died from covid-19.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Funerals: Coronavirus

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether funeral receptions and wakes will be exempt from the covid-19 lockdown restrictions announced on 9 September 2020.

Jo Churchill: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Coronavirus: Disease Control

Mr Steve Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of estimates published on the level of covid-19 in the community since the start of the outbreak; and if he will make a statement.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Hospitals: Coronavirus

Mr Steve Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the correlation between the level of hospital admissions and positive tests for covid-19; and if he will make a statement.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Coronavirus: Buckinghamshire

Mr Steve Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve access to covid-19 testing in Buckinghamshire.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Amazon

Damian Collins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what liability Amazon has in its data storage contracts with the NHS for loss of data or data breaches; and what the range of legal and financial liabilities is in contracts his Department has with other data storage suppliers.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Veterans: Mental Health Services

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will bring forward proposals to introduce an annual mental health assessment for veterans for three years following discharge.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Health services: Coronavirus

Jeremy Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many health care workers have died from covid-19 to date.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Coronavirus: Contact Tracing

Mr David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what performance targets are in place for commercial providers of track and trace functions; what penalties can be imposed for failure to meet those targets; and what penalties have already been imposed for failure to meet those targets.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Coronavirus: Contact Tracing

Mr David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish all contracts agreed between his Department and (a) Serco, (b) Sitel Group and (c) all other commercial providers of track and trace functions.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Members: Telephone Services

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Coronavirus Members' Hotline will reopen.

Jo Churchill: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Clinical Trials: Medical Equipment

Alec Shelbrooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether all trials using new medical devices are logged centrally; and what steps he is taking to ensure that there is oversight of all non-drug trials.

Ms Nadine Dorries: Medical devices are regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). All trials of new medical devices being developed for the United Kingdom market are reviewed by the MHRA before the devices are used on humans in these trials in the UK. The MHRA maintains a record of all such trials whether approved or refused. Plans are in place to make this information available to the public in future. The MHRA only has oversight of medicines and medical devices trials and therefore do not have oversight of all non-drug trials.All non-drug trials (including device studies) are centrally reviewed for ethical approval by the Health Research Authority (HRA). If they meet a set of additional legal and policy criteria, they are granted approval to proceed in the National Health Service.All clinical trials must be conducted in accordance with the Policy Framework for Health and Social Care, which describes the roles and responsibilities of those involved in research oversight.There is an expectation that all trials are registered and a lay summary made available on the HRA website.

Coronavirus: Research

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has for research into the long-term effects of covid-19 on people who contracted the virus but were never hospitalised.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The Department is aware of reports that those with milder illnesses of COVID-19 can experience ongoing symptoms. In light of these findings, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care convened a roundtable meeting with researchers and clinicians – including those specialising in community health – to establish what more can be done to understand and mitigate the long-term health effects of COVID-19.We recognise the need for further research into the longer-term effects of the virus in those who did not require hospitalisation, and the Department is considering options for future work in this area.

Coronavirus: Disease Control

Dr Lisa Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support longitudinal studies to track (a) the durability of the covid-19 immune response and (b) the long term disease consequences in covid-19 patients.

Ms Nadine Dorries: A number of different studies are considering the durability of the COVID-19 immune response, by assessing antibody waning over time and whether previous infection protects against future infection. This includes UK Biobank, REACT-2 and the Public Health England SIREN study.The National Health Service and the wider scientific community are currently working to better understand the disease course of COVID-19 infection, including the prevalence, severity and duration of symptoms, and how best to support recovery. The National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation have invested £8.4 million in the Post-HOSPitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID), led by Christopher Brightling at the University of Leicester. This study is one of the world’s largest comprehensive research studies into the long-term health impacts of COVID-19 on hospitalised patients.

Coronavirus: Research

Dr Lisa Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the pathology of the long term symptoms of covid-19.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation have invested £8.4million in the Post-HOSPitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID), led by Christopher Brightling at the University of Leicester. The study is multi-disciplinary and is one of the world’s largest comprehensive research studies into the long-term health impacts of COVID-19 on hospitalised patients.This study will create a research platform embedded within clinical care to understand the long-term outcomes for survivors following hospitalisation with COVID-19. Expert groups from across the United Kingdom will use standardised assessments of patients, including advanced imaging, recording of information and collection of samples, and will also cover the study of novel interventions in the rehabilitation pathway, including mental health interventions.

Coronavirus: Research

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on the research study into the long-term health effects of covid-19 on hospitalised patients announced on 5 July 2020.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation have invested £8.4 million in the Post-HOSPitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID), led by the University of Leicester. The study is one of the world’s largest comprehensive research studies into the long-term health impacts of COVID-19 on hospitalised patients.The study is well underway and has established a national platform to integrate research and clinical service. The first patient was recruited on 10 August. The study has received approval from the Research Ethics Committee and obtained ISRCTN registration. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN10980107The researchers have also established nine expert working groups and a Patient, Public Involvement Group to ensure the value of the patient voice is maximised and integrated in PHOSP-COVID.

Coronavirus: Disease Control

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the findings of the Covid-19 Symptom Study data that one in 10 people experience covid-19 symptoms for longer than three weeks.

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to raise public awareness of the potential long-term effects of covid-19 on people who may have only had mild symptoms of the disease to date.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The stay at home guidance sets out that if someone who has been isolating for 10 days still has a temperature, they should continue to self-isolate and seek medical advice. People do not need to self-isolate after 10 days if they only have a cough or loss of sense of smell or taste, as these symptoms can last for several weeks after the infection has gone. The guidance is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-at-home-guidance-for-households-with-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infectionThe National Health Service and the wider scientific community are currently working to better understand the disease course of COVID-19 infection, including the prevalence, severity and duration of symptoms, and how best to support recovery. The National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation have invested £8.4 million in the Post-HOSPitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID), led by Christopher Brightling at the University of Leicester. This study is one of the world’s largest comprehensive research studies into the long-term health impacts of COVID-19 on hospitalised patients and will inform future service design and provision.The new ‘Your COVID Recovery’ service, announced on 5 July, forms part of NHS plans to expand access to COVID-19 rehabilitation treatments for those who have survived the virus but still have problems with breathing, mental health problems or other complications.

Heart Diseases: Medical Equipment

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of NHS prescription of Polivalve as a mechanism of helping people with heart valve problems.

Ms Nadine Dorries: NHS England and NHS Improvement with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and other bodies access HealthTechConnect to identify innovative products for use in the National Health Service, including those still in development. In the specific case of introducing a polymeric heart valve device (PoliValve) it is noted however that this is still in research and has not yet had clinical trials in humans. It would also need to have the appropriate regulatory approvals in place that relate to safety of medical devices. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.healthtechconnect.org.ukWe are aware that clinicians view this as a potentially exciting development if it can be demonstrated it is both effective and safe compared to current therapeutic options.

Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Independent Review: Sodium Valproate

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 7 September 2020 to Question 82079 on Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Independent Review: Sodium Valproate, whether his Department plans to respond to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review and the recommendations of Baroness Cumberlege within the next three months.

Ms Nadine Dorries: As I have stated in my response to Question 82079, the recommendations of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review are being considered carefully.We do not consider it appropriate to commit to a specific timeframe for a response while these recommendations are being considered. While this report was published on 8 July, it took over two years to compile and we therefore consider it vitally important that it is given full consideration.

Mental Health Services: Young People

Scott Benton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to lines 1 and 2 on page 20 of the NHS Mental Health Implementation Plan 2019-20 to 2023-24, published in July 2019, when NHS England plans to publish the specific baseline on access to NHS-funded mental health treatment for 18 to 25 year olds.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The work around validating and publishing baseline data on access to mental health services for 18 to 25-year olds is currently underway.NHS England does not yet have a revised publication or dissemination date. Work on the development of metrics has been slowed due to the pandemic but is continuing in order to ensure delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan commitment to increase access and improve experience of care for this age group.

Eating Disorders: Coronavirus

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the answer of 18 June to Question 58640 on Eating Disorders, what assessment has been made of the effect of the (a) covid-19 outbreak and (b) the lockdown restrictions on people with eating disorders.

Ms Nadine Dorries: There is broad consensus that there is the potential for an increase in demand for mental health services to address the mental health impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. We are working with the National Health Service, Public Health England and other key partners to gather evidence and assess the potential longer-term mental health impacts, including for people with eating disorders, and plan for how to support mental health and wellbeing throughout the coming weeks and months.

Funerals: Coronavirus

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of increasing the maximum permitted number of attendees at funeral services where the venue allows for more than 30 people to be safely accommodated whilst adhering to social distancing rules.

Ms Nadine Dorries: There remains an increased risk of transmission of COVID-19 where families and communities come together following the death of a loved one, from any cause. While recognising the importance of these rituals and gatherings, it is strongly advised, in order to stay safe, that numbers of mourners in physical attendance are kept to a modest number.The premises will limit capacity based on how many people it can safely accommodate with social distancing in place. The guidance advises that the number of attendees should be restricted to a maximum of 30 persons for public health reasons. This is on the basis there is a high risk of social mixing and contact due to the nature of the events. In some cases the premises may restrict attendance to less than 30 people.Guidance for managing a funeral during the COVID-19 pandemic is provided at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-managing-a-funeral-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/covid-19-guidance-for-managing-a-funeral-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic

Health Services: Negligence

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department’s long term strategy is for tackling the increasing costs of clinical negligence cases.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The rising costs of clinical negligence are unsustainable and we are committed to tackling this issue, working with the Ministry of Justice, other Government departments and NHS Resolution. This is a complex issue and the work is ongoing. We will bring forward a publication in due course.

Plastic Surgery: Regulation

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Government has to extend powers to local authorities to regulate mobile or home-based practitioners who practise in the aesthetic sector.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The Local Government Miscellaneous Act 1982 gives local authorities powers to regulate the hygiene and cleanliness of the practice of businesses providing a specific range of body modification procedures, including electrolysis, semi-permanent skin-colouring and body piercing. Local authorities also have general enforcement powers under health and safety at work legislation if they judge that there is a risk to customers’ health and safety.The Department is exploring the regulation of premises, practitioners, products and consumer safeguards for cosmetic procedures. This includes an assessment of the regulation of practitioners and businesses offering the most invasive procedures, additional safeguards for children, and effective enforcement mechanisms.

Plastic Surgery: Coronavirus

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government plans to introduce emergency legislation to curtail the use of mobile or home-based aesthetic practitioners through the period of the covid-19 outbreak.

Ms Nadine Dorries: Providers of aesthetic services should ensure they have taken the necessary steps to become COVID-19 secure in line with health and safety legislation and Government guidance on close contact services and working in other people’s homes.Where applicable, practitioners should also take into account any guidance issued by the healthcare regulators or a relevant professional body.The Government remains ready to reintroduce proportionate restrictions in the future if the data shows that the rate of infection is increasing and that there is a need to do so.

Surgery

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) minor and (b) major operations have been cancelled since January 2020; and what steps he is taking to minimise waiting times for those operations.

Edward Argar: Data is not available in the format requested.

Health Services

Dr Luke Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of (a) the suitability of work transferred from secondary to primary care during the covid-19 outbreak and (b) the level of compliance of those transfers with the terms of the NHS Standard Contract.

Edward Argar: No services have transferred from secondary to primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of steps have been taken to ensure patients can be treated safely, and that sufficient capacity was available in hospitals to treat patients with COVID-19. No updates to the NHS Standard Contract were required to facilitate these changes, which included:- All practices have adopted total triage model, allowing them to appropriately treat patients either face to face or remotely;- COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Service arrangements were put in place to supplement existing 111 services, to ensure patients were assessed and referred to appropriate treatment in the community or in hospital as required, and;- New discharge funding arrangements have been in place to ensure allow the safe and rapid discharge of those people who no longer need to be in a hospital bed. This funding has allowed patients to be quickly discharged either to their homes, for rehabilitation or short-term care, or for ongoing nursing care, often in a bedded setting. Ongoing collaboration between secondary and primary care providers is essential to ensuring patients are treated appropriately, led by local systems.

NHS: Contracts

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 12 May 2020 to Question 41025, for what reason details of contracts which have been entered into by NHS England with independent providers since his directions in March 2020 have not been published on https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder; if he will take steps to ensure that NHS England maintains a dedicated website for publishing records of each contract that it and each clinical commissioning group award for the provision of health care services for the purposes of the NHS as required by the NHS (Procurement, Patient Choice and Competition) (No.2) Regulations 2013; and if he will make a statement.

Edward Argar: National Health Service patients are benefitting from an unprecedented partnership with private hospitals in the United Kingdom as we battle the COVID-19 outbreak. The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with the independent sector to secure all appropriate inpatient capacity and other resource across England. This has increased NHS capacity and ensured that more facilities are available for patients diagnosed with COVID-19.No contracts with independent providers were entered into by NHS England providers pursuant to The Exercise of Commissioning Functions by the National Health Service Commissioning Board (Coronavirus) Directions 2020 until 15 May 2020.As part of preparing for winter, the Government has provided an additional £3 billion to the NHS. This will allow the NHS to continue to use the extra hospital capacity acquired from the independent sector and also to maintain the Nightingale hospitals until the end of March.

Shops: Food

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care,  what assessment he has made of the effect on small shops of restrictions on where high fat, salt and sugar products can be placed in stores.

Jo Churchill: A full public consultation and impact assessment has been carried out for the proposal to restrict the promotion of foods high in fat, salt and sugar in stores. This includes an assessment of the impact on small businesses. The Government’s response to the consultation and the impact assessment will be published shortly.

Obesity: Exercise

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what provisions will be included in the new obesity strategy to increase opportunities for exercise.

Jo Churchill: We published ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’ on 27 July. The strategy demonstrates an overarching campaign to reduce obesity, takes forward actions from previous chapters of the childhood obesity plan and sets our measures to get the nation fit and healthy, protect against COVID-19 and protect the National Health Service.

Obesity: Liver Diseases

Alex Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's report, Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives, published on 27 July 2020, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of that strategy on the number of people with (a) non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and (b) liver cirrhosis.

Jo Churchill: The NHS Long Term Plan recognised that alcohol and obesity are risk factors of liver disease. ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’, published on 27 July, demonstrates an overarching campaign to reduce obesity, takes forward actions from previous chapters of the childhood obesity plan and sets out measures to get the nation fit and healthy, protect against COVID-19 and protect the National Health Service. The obesity strategy also includes a commitment to consult on our intention to make companies provide calorie labelling on alcohol. An impact assessment will be published alongside the consultation later this year.

Obesity: Children

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken with the Secretary of State for Education to tackle the level of childhood obesity.

Jo Churchill: Government departments work very closely on reducing childhood obesity and share responsibility for delivering the measures set out in the childhood obesity plan and new obesity strategy ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’. Actions being taken forward in collaboration between the Department of Health and Social Care and Department for Education include promoting physical activity and making food healthier in schools to help achieve our ambition to halve childhood obesity by 2030.

Obesity: Eating Disorders

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the implementation of the obesity strategy does not put at risk people (a) living with eating disorders and (b) who are vulnerable to developing an eating disorder.

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to mitigate the risk of calorie labelling on menus exacerbating eating disorders; and if he will make a statement.

Jo Churchill: We recognise concerns people with eating disorders may have on measures to reduce obesity and are committed to striking a careful balance between enabling people to make healthier food and drink choices whilst not negatively impacting on those with or recovering from an eating disorder.Obesity represents a huge cost to the health and wellbeing of the individual, the National Health Service and the wider economy. With over six in 10 adults and more than one in three children aged 10 to 11 years old overweight or obese, it is right we take action. In response to feedback to our consultation on out-of-home calorie labelling, we will introduce legislation to require large out-of-home sector businesses, that is businesses with 250 or more employees, to calorie label the food they sell. An equalities assessment and impact assessment were published alongside the consultation response and can be viewed at the following link: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/calorie-labelling-for-food-and-drink-served-outside-of-the-home

Healthy Start Scheme

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total expenditure was on Healthy Start vouchers in the most recent year for which data is available.

Jo Churchill: The total expenditure on Healthy Start vouchers in England, for the most recent year that data is available (2018/19), was £44,787,081. This expenditure includes the expenditure on Healthy Start vouchers redeemed and the administrative costs for the scheme.

Obesity

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people are recorded as obese, by (a) age and (b) gender in the UK.

Jo Churchill: NHS Digital has advised that obesity data for children and adults in England by age and gender is available in the Health Survey for England. This information is attached. This information can also be viewed at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/health-survey-for-england/2018

Diabetes: Medical Equipment

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the variation in insulin pump uptake nationally; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all specialist diabetes services respond to the National Diabetes Insulin Pump Audit.

Jo Churchill: The National Diabetes Insulin Pump Audit report recommended that the variation between specialist diabetic centres in pump use by people with type 1 diabetes warranted further investigation.NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) programme has undertaken reviews of specialist diabetes centres with a wide remit looking at variation in outcomes and access across a range of care processes. This included assessment of workforce capability and capacity and access to technology in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance. The GIRFT report and recommendations are being developed following these reviews.Noting this variation in access, the marked socioeconomic gradient in uptake of insulin pumps, and that there are several different technologies available to those with type 1 diabetes, not just pumps, NHS England and NHS Improvement are replacing the pump audit with a wider type 1 audit which will look at those on, and not on pumps and will also audit other technologies, both current and future.

Obesity

Stuart Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what financial support is available for small businesses and voluntary groups to support the Government's obesity reduction strategy.

Jo Churchill: There are no current plans to allocate funding to small businesses and voluntary groups to support the obesity strategy.

Malnutrition

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the data published by NHS Digital entitled Malnutrition admissions, broken down by provider, 2008-09 to 2018-19, published on 23 September 2019, what plans he has to tackle trends in the number in hospital admissions for malnutrition; and if he will make a statement.

Jo Churchill: Malnutrition is a common clinical health problem, affecting all ages and all health and care settings. The Government is committed to better screening for malnutrition and improved food standards in hospitals.Recent data produced by NHS Digital suggests an increase in the diagnosis of malnutrition on hospital admission. The reasons for this increase are complex. Partly the rise in diagnoses of malnutrition is likely to be due to improved screening and reporting and an ageing population.Hospitals and care homes must screen people for malnutrition on admission and meet high standards of nutrition care. The Care Quality Commission Fundamental Standards, which are the standards below which care should never fall, set out that an individual must have enough to eat and drink to keep them in good health while they receive care and treatment. This applies to all health and social care settings

Diabetes: Coronavirus

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to identify people with type 2 diabetes at most risk of covid-19 to ensure that they are triaged for increased contact with their healthcare professional.

Jo Churchill: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and an analysis of diabetes risk, NHS England has worked with partners to publish guidance which includes how to safely maintain essential diabetes services, conduct remote diabetes reviews and methods to prioritise the review of patients as part of local recovery efforts.Extra measures have also been put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic so that people living with diabetes can continue to access support, including commissioning services to help people with diabetes of all ages self-manage their condition using online digital structured education programmes.

Obesity: Public Consultation

Stuart Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to undertake (a) a public consultation and (b) focus group meetings with patients on the development of a new plan to reduce obesity prevalence; and if he will make a statement.

Stuart Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what meetings he has had with (a) Ministers, (b) officials in other Departments, (c) NHS England, (d) patients and (e) other stakeholders on the development of a new plan to reduce obesity prevalence.

Jo Churchill: We published ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’ on 27 July. The strategy demonstrates an overarching campaign to reduce obesity, takes forward actions from previous chapters of the childhood obesity plan and sets our measures to get the nation fit and healthy, protect against COVID-19 and protect the National Health Service. Our policies are informed by the latest research and emerging evidence, including from debates in Parliament and various reports from key stakeholders including the Health and Social Care Select Committee. We have also captured analysis from the National Institute for Health Research Obesity Policy Research Unit, which was established as part of our initial childhood obesity plan, through £5 million investment over five years. There are ongoing discussions between Ministers and officials as part of developing and delivering the obesity programme. ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’ is available at the following link:www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-obesity-government-strategy/tackling-obesity-empowering-adults-and-children-to-live-healthier-lives

Obesity: Surgery

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has taken steps to increase the accessibility of gastric surgeries for obese people as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

Alex Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's policy paper, Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives, published on 27 July 2020, what plans his Department has to introduce (a) specialist weight management clinics provided by multidisciplinary teams and (b) greater access to bariatric surgery for patients with severe and complex obesity.

Jo Churchill: Clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning complex obesity services for adults, which include all bariatric surgical procedures and the associated care. To help practitioners deliver the best possible care and give people the most effective treatments, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has produced a suite of guidance on reducing obesity including ‘Obesity: identification, assessment and management’. This includes recommendations on when to consider bariatric surgery for people who are obese. Through the new obesity strategy we are delivering a range of measures on weight management including a National Health Service 12-week weight loss plan app, expanding weight management services to help more people get the support they need, accelerating the expansion of the NHS diabetes prevention programme and making conversations about weight in primary care the norm. Further details about these measures will be available later in the year.

Healthy Start Scheme

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children were in receipt of Healthy Start vouchers in the most recent year for which data is available.

Jo Churchill: The average number of children in receipt of Healthy Start vouchers, in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, over the course of 2019/20, was 275,970.

Eating Disorders

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of making calorie counts mandatory on restaurant menus on people with eating disorders.

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Government's tackling obesity public awareness campaign in relation to people with an eating disorder.

Caroline Nokes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the evidential basis is that calorie counts on menus will affect (a) individual food choices and (b) weight loss across the population.

Kate Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure collaboration between policies on tackling obesity and eating disorders.

Jo Churchill: We recognise concerns people with eating disorders may have on measures to reduce obesity and are committed to striking a careful balance between enabling people to make healthier food and drink choices whilst not negatively impacting on those with or recovering from an eating disorder. Obesity represents a huge cost to the health and wellbeing of the individual, the National Health Service and the wider economy. With over six in 10 adults and more than one in three children aged 10 to 11 years old overweight or obese, it is right we take action. In response to feedback to our consultation on out-of-home calorie labelling, we will introduce legislation to require large out-of-home sector businesses, that is businesses with 250 or more employees, to calorie label the food they sell. An equalities assessment and impact assessment were published alongside the consultation response and can be viewed at the following link: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/calorie-labelling-for-food-and-drink-served-outside-of-the-home

Skin Diseases: Hygiene

Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the Government has made of the (a) effect of alcohol-based hand sanitisers on people with skin conditions and (b) effectiveness of alternatives available to people who cannot use alcohol-based hand sanitisers due to skin conditions or allergies.

Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of guidance on hand sanitisers for people who cannot use alcohol-based hand rubs as a result of (a) eczema, (b) dermatitis, (c) other skin conditions and (d) allergy reactions.

Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will undertake a review of whether alcohol-free hand sanitisers which are independently lab-certified to be effective can be included in public guidance alongside alcohol-based products.

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of guidance on hand sanitiser for people who cannot use alcohol-based hand rubs as a result of (a) eczema, (b) dermatitis and (c) other skin conditions.

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to protect NHS staff from skin conditions or a worsening of existing skin conditions as a result of the drying effects of alcohol-based hand rubs.

Jo Churchill: Providers of National Health Service care in England use the evidence cited and ensure that appropriate training is provided to health care workers in hand hygiene, providers also ensure that products are purchased that are consistent with the best available evidence. All healthcare workers have access to occupational health assessment and are referred for assessment and treatment in the event of developing skin complications. Using the guidelines, recommendations made by occupational health are followed by NHS providers as part of risk assessment and mitigation for the individual and the patient.As Health and Safety Executive guidance for the general public states, and in line with WHO guidance, alcohol does not have to be “active ingredients” to be effective in hand sanitizer. The World Health Organization recommend that hand sanitiser should contain a minimum of 60% alcohol, but non-alcohol based sanitisers can also be effective when combined with other social distancing measures.

Coronavirus: Clinical Trials

John Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the most recent results are of trials of existing approved medicines as potential treatments for covid-19.

Jo Churchill: On 2 September, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued new interim guidance recommending the use of systemic corticosteroids in severe and critical COVID-19 disease. This is based on a meta-analysis of recent clinical trials including the United Kingdom supported REMAP-CAP and RECOVERY trials.Clinical guidance has been issued recommending clinicians consider the use of systemic corticosteroids, including dexamethasone and hydrocortisone, for National Health Service patients with severe and critical COVID-19.This updates previous NHS advice to consider dexamethasone for the management of hospitalised patients with COVID-19 who require oxygen or ventilation; the updated advice includes the use of intravenous hydrocortisone and aligns with the WHO guidance.The NHS advice and WHO guidance can be found at the following links:https://www.cas.mhra.gov.uk/ViewandAcknowledgment/ViewAlert.aspx?AlertID=103092https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-Corticosteroids-2020.1

Members: Correspondence

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his meeting with the hon. Member for Bristol East's constituent Jake Ogborne on access to the drug Spinraza on 23 June, and his response to the hon. Members for Bristol East's question in the House on 20 July, Official Report, column 1857, when he will provide the hon. Member with details of his correspondence with NHS England on access to Spinraza.

Jo Churchill: The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has discussed access to Spinraza with NHS England and NHS Improvement. My Rt hon. Friend has asked them to respond to the hon. Member for Bristol East as soon as possible.

Wales Office

Hydrogen: Wales

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what assessment he has made of the role that Wales can play in the UK's hydrogen strategy; and what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on the UK's hydrogen strategy.

Simon Hart: Wales has the potential to lead in hydrogen generation technology and the UK Government is committed to ensuring that Wales plays its full part in delivering the UK’s future energy mix. I recently saw the leading role Wales can play in this area when I visited Riversimple, a hydrogen car manufacturer based in Powys. UK Research and Innovation also continues to support the South Wales Industrial Cluster with £170million of funding as part of the Industrial Decarbonisation challenge. The Cluster will play its part in developing options for decarbonising the region’s industrial base, including the use of hydrogen. I regularly discuss a range of issues with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and earlier this month BEIS Ministers and I met with companies looking to expand hydrogen production in Wales. The Government aims to consult on a preferred business model for low-carbon hydrogen production in 2021. This will be key to stimulating the deployment of hydrogen across the UK.

Department for Education

Schools: Coronavirus

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether daily testing will be provided for professionals working in schools.

Nick Gibb: Testing for COVID-19 is most effective for those who are experiencing symptoms. Anyone who develops symptoms should get tested.The latest clinical advice is that testing of individuals without symptoms should only be used where clinically appropriate, predominantly for further investigation of outbreaks and infection control. This risk-based approach is essential to ensure testing is targeted where it is most effective.

Pupils: Social Distancing

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that school children adhere to  social distancing guidance.

Nick Gibb: Returning to school is vital for children’s education and for their wellbeing. Time out of school is detrimental for children’s cognitive and academic development, particularly for disadvantaged children. This impact can affect both current levels of education and children’s future ability to learn, which is why we need to ensure all pupils can return to school sooner rather than later. On 2 July, the Department published guidance for schools to help them prepare for the autumn term. The guidance can be found here:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools#section-1-public-health-advice-to-minimise-coronavirus-covid-19-risks. The guidance sets out the Public Health England-endorsed system of controls which schools should implement to reduce risks. This includes advice on minimising contacts and mixing between people, which can be achieved through keeping groups separate and through maintaining distance between individuals. Schools must do everything possible to minimise contacts and mixing while delivering a broad and balanced curriculum. Schools should consider updating their behaviour policies with any new rules or policies, and consider how to communicate rules and policies clearly and consistently to staff, pupils and parents. Schools should set out the consequences for poor behaviour and deliberately breaking the rules and how they will enforce those rules, including any sanctions. This is particularly the case when considering restrictions on movement within school and new hygiene rules. Further guidance about behaviour and discipline in schools is available here:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/behaviour-and-discipline-in-schools.

Educational Institutions: Sanitary Protection

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many eligible institutions have (a) registered for and (b) ordered free period products under his Department's free period product scheme since that scheme was launched in January 2020.

Vicky Ford: On 20 January 2020, the department launched a new scheme which makes free period products available for state-funded primary schools, secondary schools and colleges in England. This is an important step to ensure that menstruation does not present a barrier to learning and that no-one is held back from reaching their potential.The scheme remained in operation during partial school closures, and schools and colleges were still able to order a range of period products through the online portal and distribute them to students.All eligible schools and colleges were automatically registered for the scheme and were sent a welcome email in January. There have since been further email campaigns to all eligible schools and colleges, encouraging them to engage with the scheme.Our delivery partner, phs Group, reported that since the scheme launched, almost 40% of eligible organisations have placed orders for period products.

Schools: Coronavirus

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons each school receives an initial supply of only 10 home testing kits for covid-19; and whether he plans to increase this initial supply.

Nick Gibb: An initial supply of home test kits have been provided to schools and colleges to distribute in exceptional circumstances when a child or staff member faces significant barriers to accessing a test, and where providing one directly will significantly increase the likelihood that they will get tested.Guidance for schools and colleges on home test kits has been published: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-home-test-kits-for-schools-and-fe-providers/coronavirus-covid-19-home-test-kits-for-schools-and-fe-providers.Information has been sent to schools and will be published shortly on how additional test kits can be ordered. The number of kits available to each school will depend on the size of the school.

Department for Education: Training

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much the Department spent on unconscious bias training in each of the last five years.

Nick Gibb: The Department pays an annual subscription cost to Civil Service Learning, which includes access to a large number of e-learning packages at no charge. This includes Unconscious Bias e-learning.In 2018/19, the Department’s HR records show a spend of £92,500 on face to face Unconscious Bias training.The figure provided does not include spending on Unconscious Bias training which may have been arranged by Department local business areas via the Civil Service wide offer or via local procurement routes.

Education: Coronavirus

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what role academic mentors will play in will play in closing the covid-19 educational attainment gap.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) training and (b) experience academic mentors recruited to help close the covid-19 educational gap in schools in disadvantaged areas will be given.

Nick Gibb: The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) will support some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils to catch up on missed education. The Academic Mentors strand, delivered by Teach First, will support schools in the most disadvantaged areas to recruit high quality Academic Mentors and train and place them as members of school staff.Academic Mentors will work closely with school staff to provide intensive small group and one to one tuition to those disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils that are most at risk of falling behind. Mentors will bring additional capacity to schools to support pupils to catch up, whilst allowing teachers to continue overall classroom teaching. Schools will be able to tailor the support their mentor offers, for example, they might provide revision lessons or additional support to pupils that are shielding.Academic Mentors can be graduates with some experience in education or working with pupils, qualified teachers, or they may be working towards an initial teacher training qualification or otherwise considering a career in education. Teach First will provide a package of training for successful applicants, before and during their placement. This includes one week of initial training for those who are already qualified as teachers and two weeks for those that hold a degree but are not qualified as teachers. This will include elements such as assessment, planning and safeguarding. In addition, schools as the employers will see Academic Mentors as part of their staff team, supporting and managing them to deliver tuition support that is appropriate, timely, and linked to their curriculum.

Schools: Coronavirus

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the scientific evidence on wearing face coverings in communal areas in schools to reduce the risk of transmission of covid-19.

Nick Gibb: On 21 August 2020, the World Health Organisation published a new statement advising that “children aged 12 and over should wear face coverings under the same conditions as adults, particularly when they cannot guarantee at least a 1 metre distance from others and there is widespread transmission in the area.” As a result, the Department has revised its guidance on face coverings in schools and colleges, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-in-education/face-coverings-in-education.The guidance outlines that in areas of national government intervention, in schools where year 7 and above are educated, face coverings should be worn by staff, visitors and pupils when moving around indoors. This includes corridors and communal areas where social distancing is difficult to maintain.Nationwide, the Government is not recommending that face coverings are necessary in schools generally because a system of controls provides additional mitigating measures. However, schools have the discretion to require face coverings in indoor communal areas where social distancing cannot be safely managed, if they believe that it is right in their particular circumstances.In primary schools where social distancing is not possible in indoor areas outside of classrooms between members of staff or visitors, head teachers have the discretion to decide whether to ask staff or visitors to wear, or agree to them wearing, face coverings in these circumstances. However, children in primary school do not need to wear a face covering.Based on current evidence, and in light of the mitigating measures schools are already putting in place, face coverings will not be necessary in the classroom. Face coverings would have a negative impact on teaching and their use in the classroom should be avoided.

Schools: Coronavirus

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support schools with high numbers of pupils from inter-generational family units during the covid-19 outbreak.

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support schools with high numbers of pupils with family members with severe health risks during the covid-19 outbreak.

Nick Gibb: The Government has been clear that all pupils, in all year groups, should return to school full-time from the beginning of the autumn term. On 2 July, the Department published guidance to help schools prepare for this. The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.Shielding advice for all adults and children paused on 1 August. This means that even the small number of pupils who remain on the shielded patient list can return to school, as can those who have family members who are shielding.The above guidance sets out a system of controls which provides a framework for school leaders to put in place proportionate protective measures for children and staff, which also ensure that all pupils receive a high quality education that enables them to thrive and progress. This includes the public health advice that schools must follow to minimise the risks of COVID-19 transmission.Schools should bear in mind the potential concerns of pupils, parents and households who may be reluctant or anxious about returning and put the right support in place to address this. This may include pupils who have themselves been shielding previously but have been advised that this is no longer necessary, those living in households where someone is clinically vulnerable, or those concerned about the comparatively increased risk from COVID-19, including those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds or who have certain conditions such as obesity and diabetes.If parents of pupils with significant risk factors are concerned, we recommend schools discuss their concerns and provide reassurance of the measures they are putting in place to reduce the risk in school.

Schools: Coronavirus

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department made available through exceptional costs during the covid-19 outbreak between March and July 2020.

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the total value is of claims made by schools under the exceptional costs programme from March to July 2020.

Nick Gibb: We are providing additional funding to schools, on top of existing budgets, to cover unavoidable costs incurred between March and July due to the COVID-19 outbreak that cannot be met from their existing resources.Schools are eligible to claim for: increased premises related costs associated with keeping schools open over the Easter and summer half term holidays; support for free school meals for eligible children who are not in school, where schools are not using the national voucher scheme; and additional cleaning costs required due to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, over and above the cost of existing cleaning arrangements.The first claims window for the COVID-19 schools fund closed on 21 July. There will be a further opportunity in the autumn for schools to claim for exceptional costs that occurred between March and July. This second claims window will be for available for schools who were unable to claim in the summer and will be for the same eligible cost categories.Schools have claimed £104 million against the standard expenditure categories in the fund, as set out above. Schools have already received payments of £58 million against the standard expenditure categories.

Schools: Gender Recognition

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the judgment on Trans toolkit for schools and Oxfordshire County Council.

Nick Gibb: The Department is aware of the issue referred to and will continue to work closely with colleagues across Government to consider ongoing developments in this case.Schools should assess resources they use to ensure they are appropriate for the age and maturity of their pupils and sensitive to their needs, where relevant. The toolkit in question has not been produced or endorsed by the Department for Education. We would advise that schools work with parents, pupils and public services to decide what is best for individual children – and what is best for others in the school.

Education: Coronavirus

Adam Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the quality of education that pupils received (a) online and (b) on paper while schools have been closed during the covid-19 outbreak.

Adam Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of education provided to school pupils during the period of school closures during the covid-19 outbreak.

Adam Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of wholly paper-based tuition in meeting the (a) education and (b) emotional needs of pupils during the covid-19 outbreak.

Nick Gibb: As part of national social distancing measures to limit the spread of COVID-19, we had to limit the numbers of children and young people attending schools, colleges, and nurseries. That is why, between 20 March and 1 June, education and childcare settings were open only to priority groups.During the period of partial school closures, schools did a huge amount to deliver remote education to pupils remaining at home. The Department has supported sector-led initiatives such as Oak National Academy, a new organisation created by 40 teachers from schools across England. The Department has made £4.84 million available for Oak National Academy both for the summer term of the academic year 2019-20, and then for the 2020-21 academic year to provide video lessons for reception up to year 11. This will include specialist content for pupils with special educational needs and disability. The Oak National Academy will remain a free optional resource for 2020-21, as remote education may need to be an essential component in the delivery of the school curriculum for some pupils alongside classroom teaching, or in the case of a local lockdown. The Department is currently considering approaches to evaluating the Oak National Academy's effectiveness.The Department published a comprehensive range of advice and guidance to support schools, including a list of high-quality online resources, which was assessed with support from some of the country’s leading educational experts. The guidance also included examples of how schools can support pupils without internet access by, for example, providing physical work packs, which can be seen here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/remote-education-practice-for-schools-during-coronavirus-covid-19, and here: https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/providing-physical-work-packs-for-pupils-with-limited-or-no-internet-connection.In addition to the departmental guidance and the work ofthe Oak National Academy, the BBC developed resources for families as part of a comprehensive new education package. This service was available during the period of partial school closures on television, BBC iPlayer and online at BBC Bitesize. Pupils without internet access were able to access the BBC’s education content via the red button.In June, the Government announced a £1 billon support package to ensure that schools can help all children and young people make up for the lost teaching time. The package consists of two elements: a universal catch up premium for schools of £650 million to help make up for lost teaching time, and a new £350 million National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged pupils and students.The Department has already invested over £100 million to support remote education, including the delivery of over 220,000 laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children who would not otherwise have access. We are now supplementing this support by making available additional devices in the event face-to-face schooling is disrupted as a result of COVID-19 outbreaks or local lockdowns, and children become reliant on remote education.

Schools: Coronavirus

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of information on new infections provided to schools to aid local decision making.

Nick Gibb: On 2 July 2020, we published guidance for schools outlining the actions they need to take to prevent and respond to any confirmed case of COVID-19. It also sets out some of the measures they should have in place to plan for any potential local lockdown: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.Schools will be supported to respond to any outbreaks within their settings by their local health protection team.In addition, the Government has published the ‘Contain Framework’. This national framework will support local decision-makers by clarifying their responsibilities and empowering them to take preventative action and make strong decisions locally, supported by mechanisms that safeguard key national assets. The framework can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/containing-and-managing-local-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreaks/covid-19-contain-framework-a-guide-for-local-decision-makers.Information on the number of cases broken down by region and local authority is updated on a daily basis on the COVID-19 dashboard, available here: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/.The Department has also been working with the Joint Biosecurity Centre to produce and publish a series of Action Cards to support educational settings and provide instructions on what to do in the event of one of more confirmed cases of COVID-19. The Action Cards can be found here: https://coronavirusresources.phe.gov.uk/reporting-an-outbreak/resources/Education-Action-Cards/.

Overseas Students: Entry Clearances

Richard Thomson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of extending the duration of the graduate work visa.

Michelle Donelan: Extensive engagement has taken place across the government, both at a ministerial level and official level, throughout the development of the future immigration system, including on the new graduate and student routes and other points-based routes.The graduate route, launching in summer 2021, represents our continued commitment to support the UK’s education sector and our strong desire to make a truly world-leading offer to international students, allowing new graduates the opportunity to remain in the UK to work or to look for work after their studies. This is already a substantial improvement on the UK’s previous post-study work offer of 4 months (6 months under the limited pilot programme). Since we had originally announced the details of the graduate route last September, the government announced a further change, extending the post-study work period to 3 years for PhD graduates.We believe that 2 years (3 years for PhD graduates) is a fair and generous amount of time to allow international graduates to have unrestricted access to the UK labour market, enabling them to gain valuable work experience and to kick-start their careers. We also believe this will help to ensure that the UK continues to be an attractive destination for international students. We will of course keep the operation of the graduate route under review once it has been implemented.At the end of their leave as a graduate, international students who wish to stay and work in the UK for longer will also be eligible to switch into employment immigration routes. We are reviewing and simplifying the employment routes as part of the government’s work on the future borders and immigration system to ensure that they meet the UK’s needs.The government also recently published and updated bespoke guidance for students impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, setting out important flexibilities at this time. This includes confirming that those studying by distance/blended learning will be eligible to apply for the graduate route provided they are in the UK by 6 April 2021 and meet other requirements of the route. We now have a world-class student visa offer befitting our world-class higher education sector, which will only improve once the student route is operational later this year and student visa processes are further streamlined.

Schools: Coronavirus

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will discuss with the Chancellor of the Exchequer the potential merits of extending the COVID Summer Food Fund for school holidays in the 2020-21 academic year.

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of continuing the provision of food vouchers to children who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals, throughout all school holidays.

Vicky Ford: The government has taken unprecedented and substantial action to ensure that children do not go hungry as we take measures to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak, including in relation to free school meals.In the first instance, we asked schools to support eligible pupils by providing meals or food parcels through their existing food providers wherever possible. For circumstances where this was not possible, we also established a national voucher scheme. In addition, the COVID-19 Summer Food Fund supported eligible families during the summer holidays.This summer, our £9 million Holiday Activities and Food Programme also worked across 17 local authorities, providing thousands of children with access to healthy meals and enriching activities and building on the success of the 2018 and 2019 programmes. We are currently assessing the scheme to ascertain the best way to provide children with activities as well as food during the holiday period. Our 2020 programme will help to show how free provision can be coordinated in different local areas and it will provide valuable information about what works in supporting this sector in future.From 2021, the government has a manifesto commitment to invest up to £1 billion to help create more high-quality wraparound and holiday childcare places. We will announce further details on this new investment in due course.

Disability and Special Educational Needs

Zarah Sultana: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress the Government has made in implementing each of the recommendations of the Education Select Committee's report entitled Special educational needs and disabilities, HC20, published 23 October 2019.

Vicky Ford: Our response to the Education Committee’s report was published on 23 July.The government is conducting a review of the special educational needs and disability (SEND) system. This is a fundamental, cross-government review considering measures to ensure the SEND system delivers high quality outcomes for children and young people, and that is consistent and sustainable into the future.We will be providing a further update on our response to the Committee’s Inquiry later this year.

Ministry of Justice

Legal Aid Scheme: Companies

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect of the reduction of standard monthly payments to criminal legal aid firms on those firms.

Alex Chalk: At present, 17% of all crime accounts are paid under the Standard Monthly Payment (‘SMP’) model. The remainder have opted for Variable Monthly Payments, which pays the actual value of the claim submitted each month. Firms can elect to be paid by either model, according to which may be most advantageous to them. SMPs relate to Controlled Work services only, and therefore reflect a proportion of a provider’s total revenue.The number of those accounts paid via SMP which have seen a reduction in payments since July 2020 represents 6% of all crime accounts. Where a reduction is necessary, this takes effect following the Legal Aid Agency notifying providers of this in advance. Firms facing financial hardship can discuss payment options further with their LAA Contract Manager.The LAA has implemented several changes to maintain cashflow to firms and to allow firms to be paid more quickly – through these changes we can inject up to £51 million per year into criminal legal aid. We have begun a review into how criminal lawyers are compensated for their work: https://consult.justice.gov.uk/criminal-legal-aid/criminal-legal-aid-review/.In addition to the support schemes offered by the government, we have continued to pay providers on time and introduced a number of measures to speed up payments to providers. All of the measures taken by the LAA are set out on our gov.uk page: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-legal-aid-agency-contingency-response#financial-relief-page.

Barristers: Criminal Proceedings

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the Bar Council's July 2020 survey which found that 38 per cent of criminal barristers are uncertain whether they will still be practising law in 2021.

Alex Chalk: Criminal defence lawyers play a crucial role in upholding the rule of law and the Government greatly values the work they do.To support the profession through the Covid-19 pandemic, we sought to improve the cashflow for the profession and provide support for legal aid practitioners. The changes made ensured that for work done in the Crown Court, practitioners were able to claim hardship payments for £450 worth of work done instead of £5,000, from 1 month after instruction (as opposed to 6 months). The LAA have also halted debt collection and increased the limits for payments on account claims.The Crown Court resumed jury trials in May with the full support of Public Health England and Public Health Wales. This was ahead of all other comparable systems. Since then we have significantly expanded our capacity, opening more than 100 jury trial courtrooms safely. The Court Recovery plan, published on Monday 7 September, outlines the steps we will take to open 250 rooms by the end of October.More recently, we announced in August that we would be taking forward the policy proposals from the accelerate areas of the Criminal Legal Aid Review (CLAR) that practitioners told us mattered most. These areas were:?unused material, cracked trials, paper-heavy cases, sending cases to the Crown Court, and?pre-charge engagement. These policies allowed us to inject between £36million to £51million into criminal legal aid.As the pandemic has thrown into sharp focus the concerns about the sustainability of the market, in announcing the conclusions to the accelerated areas we also announced that the next phase of CLAR should involve an independently-led review. This review will be ambitious and far reaching in scope, assessing the criminal legal aid system in its entirety, and will aim to improve transparency, efficiency, sustainability and outcomes in the legal aid market.

Reoffenders

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the change in the custody recall rate since 2015 for (a) women and (b) men.

Lucy Frazer: The introduction of the Offender Rehabilitation Act (ORA) 2015 meant that offenders serving sentences of under 12 months were released on licence, thereby significantly increasing the overall number of offenders on licensed supervision in the community and thus liable to be recalled for breaching their licence conditions. Consequently, and as predicted, ORA led to an increase in the number of recalls. The number of quarterly recalls throughout 2016 and 2017 was relatively stable and below a peak of about 6000 in 2015 quarter 3.From 2018, the number of quarterly recalls started increasing noticeably and reached a peak of about 7000 in 2019 quarter 3, although we have seen consecutive quarterly decreases in recalls up to 2020 quarter 1 (the latest period for which data are available).There are a number of reasons for the increase in recalls in 2018 and 2019, including the greater numbers of prisoners released on in the Home Detention Curfew (HDC) Scheme, after changes were made to that Scheme in 2018, thereby increasing the number liable to be recalled. Additionally, HM Prison and Probation Service issued essential fresh guidance on recall, in response to evidence that some probation officers did not fully understand the purpose of recall and the threshold which had to be met for recall.(a) The number of quarterly recalls of females increased generally, going from about 350 in 2015 quarter 3 to about 520 in 2019 quarter 3. Because a higher proportion of female offenders fall within the ORA category, ORA has had a disproportionateupward effect on the number of females recalled. However, the number of quarterly recalls of females has trended downwards from early 2019 to 2020 quarter 1.(b) The number of quarterly recalls of males reduced from about 5,650 in 2015 quarter 3 and stayed relatively stable throughout 2016 and 2017. It started to increase in 2018 to a peak of about 6,500 in 2019 quarter 3, although we have seen consecutive quarterly decreases in recalls of males up to 2020 quarter 1.Public protection is our priority. Offenders on licence are subject to strict licence conditions and supervision. When an offender breaches a condition of their licence the Probation Service will undertake a thorough risk assessment to determine whether it is necessary, for the protection of the public, to recall that offender to prison.

Remand in Custody: Coronavirus

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak and lockdown on trends in the level of average hours of contact time with family members per week through (a) face-to-face, (b) telephone and (c) video contact for those in (i) adult male, (ii) adult female and (ii) youth custody.

Lucy Frazer: While we do not collate national data on hours of family contact, we absolutely recognise the importance of family contact for those in custody in line with the recommendations of Lord Farmer’s Reviews. This is why, following the necessary suspension of prison visits in March in response to Covid-19 in order to keep prisoners, their families and staff safe, we introduced a range of measures to minimise the impacts. This included introducing over 1,200 secure mobile PIN phone handsets which are being used to contact family and friends, bolstered support for the Prisoner’s Families Helpline and introduced secure video calls which are currently operating in over 100 prisons across England and Wales. We have reintroduced face-to-face visits in line with the National Framework for Prison Regimes and Services with prisons commencing when it was safe to do so in a Covid-secure manner and will continue to expand visits capacity in line with Public Health advice and monitoring of local circumstances. Currently, up to two adults and two children are permitted to visit for a minimum of 45 minutes in prisons where it is safe to do so. Guidance on visits protocols for each prison, including steps we are taking to keep visitors safe, is published on GOV.UK at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/visit-someone-in-prison-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic. This sets out differences in the adult and youth estates, but otherwise this applies for visits to all categories of prisoner. We aim to continue to expand visit arrangements as part of further relaxations to prison regimes, as it is safe to do so, and in line with public health advice.

Marriage

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government will seek to change the terms of reference for the Law Commission's review of marriages in response to the High Court judgement in R (Harrison and others) v Secretary of State for Justice [2020] EWHC 2096 (Admin).

Alex Chalk: The Law Commission’s terms of reference make it clear that it will not be making recommendations as to whether new groups should be allowed to conduct legally binding weddings. However, they will consider how marriages by humanist and other non-religious belief organisations could be incorporated into a revised scheme for all marriages that is simple, fair and consistent. The Government will decide on provision on the basis of the Law Commission's recommendations.The Law Commission published its consultation paper on 3 September and will welcome contributions from all stakeholders.

Department for International Trade

Department for International Trade: Training

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how much the Department spent on unconscious bias training in each of the last five years.

Greg Hands: Unconscious bias training is mandatory for all staff in the Department for International Trade (DIT), including UK Export Finance (UKEF), who are required to complete an on-line learning module on an annual basis. There is no cost to DIT for this training provided by Civil Service Learning which offers to their learning catalogue on an annual subscription model for Civil Service organisations.

Department of Trade: Savannah Spirits Group

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the publication DIT: spending over £500, January 2019, published in June 2019, what the purpose of her Department’s expenditure of £1,185.06 with Savannah Spirits on 15 January 2019 was; and what items were purchased with that expenditure.

Greg Hands: The Aerospace team took a delegation of UK companies to the Savannah Spirits restaurant in January 2019 during a trade mission. £1,185.06 was spent on a dinner for the participating UK companies involved in the mission. Department for International Trade (DIT) officials also attended the dinner. Trade missions are a crucial tool in connecting UK companies with overseas customers and opportunities, bringing substantial economic benefits to businesses right across the UK.

World Trade Organisation: Public Appointments

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many hours of staff time at each grade were involved in (a) drafting, designing and producing, (b) translating, and (c) distributing her Department's campaign brochure for the UK's nominee for the role of director general of the World Trade Organization.

Greg Hands: Drafting, designing and producing the Department’s campaign brochure took in the region of 25-30 hours of staff time. We do not hold detailed records of the time and grade of employees involved.

Tradeshow Access Programme: Finance

Kate Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how much of the funding allocated for Tradeshow Access Programmes remained unspent in 2019-20.

Graham Stuart: There was an underspend of £1.2m against Tradeshow Access Programme budgets in 2019-20. The underspend arose predominantly within the last two months of the financial year, the busiest period of the tradeshow calendar, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the cancellation of many shows from February 2020 onwards. We continue to work hard with business and trade bodies to support TAP stakeholders, and successful applicants, to attend those agreed tradeshows that are internationally accessible, under HMG travel guidelines, at the point they commence.

Members: Correspondence

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, when she plans to respond to correspondence from Paul Aiger of UK Export Partners of 11 August 2020.

Graham Stuart: The Department for International Trade (DIT) is in discussions with Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) regarding amendments to the Tradeshow Access Programme. Those discussions are ongoing, and the Secretary of State will reply to Mr Alger once they are resolved.

Department for International Trade: Staff

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many members of staff in their Department have one or more of the words equality, diversity, inclusion, gender, LGBT or race in their job title.

Greg Hands: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave on 9 September to Question 83937.

World Trade Organisation: Public Appointments

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what the cost was to the public purse of (a) scripting, filming and editing and (b) distributing her Department's campaign video for the UK's nominee for the role of director general of the World Trade Organization.

Greg Hands: Other than the costs of staff, there were no additional costs to the public purse of scripting, filming and editing the campaign video.

Diplomatic Relations: Australia

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether Government business was discussed at her dinner with the Australian High Commissioner on 28 August 2019.

Greg Hands: A range of issues relating to the UK/Australia relationship were discussed.

Diplomatic Relations: Australia

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what meetings she had with Departmental officials on the content of her discussions at her dinner with the Australian High Commissioner on 28 August 2019.

Greg Hands: There were no meetings with Department officials.

Diplomatic Relations: Australia

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether one or more of her (a) private secretaries or (b) other Departmental officials were present at her dinner with the Australian High Commissioner on 28 August 2019.

Greg Hands: A private secretary was present.

Diplomatic Relations: Australia

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, for what reason her dinner with the Australian High Commissioner on 28 August 2019 was not declared in the registers of ministerial meetings or hospitality for the period July to September 2019, published by her Department on 23 January 2020.

Greg Hands: Meetings with foreign governments and their representatives are not declared in transparency data.

World Trade Organisation: Public Appointments

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what the cost to the public purse was of (a) drafting, designing and producing, (b) translating, and (c) distributing her Department's campaign brochure for the UK's nominee for the role of director general of the World Trade Organization.

Greg Hands: The total cost to the public purse of drafting, designing, and producing the Department’s campaign brochure was £643.20. These costs were incurred in the printing of the brochure. Total costs of £2,849.73 were incurred in translation and typesetting of materials into French, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese. There were no costs incurred in the distribution of the campaign brochure.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Training

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much the Department spent on unconscious bias training in each of the last five years.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Civil Service Talent Action Plan, published in 2014, included a requirement that all civil servants complete learning on unconscious bias. Online learning was made available via Civil Service Learning (CSL) for all staff and a face to face course for the Senior Civil Service (SCS). As part of the introduction of the CSL Learning Platform for Government website in Autumn 2019, MHCLG has set an updated curriculum which outlines 'required' learning for all staff, including the SCS. This is inclusive of an e-learning course on Diversity and Inclusion, which includes 4 modules covering unconscious bias in various contexts (e.g. recruitment) and a stand-alone course on unconscious bias. There is no cost per use charge to the Department for online learning; data on spend in relation to these courses is therefore not held centrally and to gather the data for the whole department would exceed the disproportionate cost limit.

Faith, Race and Hate Crime Grant Scheme

Naz Shah: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will list the recipients of funding from the Faith, Race and Hate Crime Grant scheme 2020 to 2021.

Luke Hall: The names of recipients of funding from the Faith, Race and Hate Crime Grant Scheme 2020- 2021 will be publicly available in due course.

Marriage: Coronavirus

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department plans to publish further guidance on holding weddings during the covid-19 outbreak.

Luke Hall: We have published guidance on how weddings can be carried out safely. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-small-marriages-and-civil-partnerships/covid-19-guidance-for-wedding-and-civil-partnership-receptions-and-celebrations.

Public Lavatories: Coronavirus

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will update the guidance on the opening of toilets run by (a) local authorities, (b) hospitality businesses, and (c) motorway service station as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.

Christopher Pincher: The Government has published guidance to ensure public toilets can be opened safely. This guidance is reviewed regularly.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Staff

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many members of staff in their Department have one or more of the words equality, diversity, inclusion, gender, LGBT or race in their job title.

Kelly Tolhurst: The data requested is not held centrally and to gather the data for the whole department would exceed the disproportionate cost limit.

Homelessness: Coronavirus

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people in Wansbeck constituency were placed in emergency housing as a result of a risk of homelessness between March and August 2020.

Kelly Tolhurst: Nationally nearly 15,000 vulnerable people have been housed in emergency accommodation, including hotels, since the start of the Covid-19 lockdown period. This includes people coming in directly from the streets, people previously housed in shared night shelters and people who have become vulnerable to rough sleeping during the pandemic.??On 3 June, the Government published the management information that supports this announcement.This management information has been collected from over 300 local authorities nationally. We are continuing to work with local authorities to understand the work they are doing to help the most vulnerable in our society. Data is collected on an ongoing basis and we are currently working closely with local authorities to ensure that the data we hold is robust.

Homelessness: Coronavirus

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people were placed in emergency housing as a result of a risk of homelessness between March and August 2020.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government publishes management information about the support for rough sleepers and those at risk of rough sleeping during the Covid-19 pandemic.The latest data was published on 3 June and shows 14,610 people were provided emergency accommodation at May 2020. This data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-rough-sleeper-accommodation-survey-data-may-2020.

Coronavirus: Disease Control

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, which Government department will be providing funding to local authorities for the provision of covid-secure marshals, announced by the Prime Minister on 9 September 2020.

Christopher Pincher: We will provide further details on marshals, including details on the funding department, in due course.

Social Rented Housing: Wansbeck

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people are on the waiting list for social housing in Wansbeck constituency.

Christopher Pincher: The Department does not collect waiting list data at constituency level. Data for Northumberland County Council can be found in MHCLG's Live Table 600, which is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-rents-lettings-and-tenancies.

Social Rented Housing: Northumberland

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to allocate additional funding to Northumberland county council to build more social houses.

Christopher Pincher: We encourage councils to bid for funding from the Affordable Homes Programme to deliver affordable homes. The £9 billion Affordable Homes Programme runs to 2022 and will be extended by one year to save homes that would otherwise have been lost following site closures due to Covid-19. Building on this, we have just confirmed the details of £12.2 billion of additional investment. This includes a new £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme which will be delivered over 5 years from next year (2021-2026). This programme represents the highest single funding commitment to affordable housing in a decade.

Affordable Housing: Construction

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the proposed planning changes, what steps his Department will take to protect the supply of affordable housing and ensure it is delivered where it is needed.

Christopher Pincher: The Government is committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing and has recently confirmed the details of £12.2 billion of investment. This includes a new £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme which will be delivered over 5 years from next year (2021-2026), providing up to 180,000 new homes across the country, should economic conditions allow. This programme represents the highest single funding commitment to affordable housing in a decade.Affordable housing is also delivered through developer contributions in the planning system. The Planning for the Future White Paper, published on 6 August, sets out proposals for reform of the planning system in England. This includes reform of developer contributions and proposes a new nationally-set ‘Infrastructure Levy’, which will be designed to deliver at least as much affordable housing as current arrangements. Under the proposed approach, housing associations and providers of affordable housing will continue to play an important role in delivering affordable housing secured through developer contributions.

Coronavirus: Disease Control

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what guidance his Department plans to publish on the provision of covid-secure marshals, announced by the Prime Minister on 9 September 2020.

Christopher Pincher: The Government is encouraging the introduction of Covid-secure marshals to help support our high streets and public spaces, making sure that people feel safe to enjoy them. Details will be published in due course, including any plans for guidance.We have worked closely with local authorities who have already deployed marshals in order to develop our approach when rolling out this policy. For example, in Leeds City Council marshals supported reopening of non-essential retail and the reopening of the hospitality sector, whilst in Cornwall, marshals helped in the ‘Safer Summer’ scheme at the busiest times of day to give friendly help and guidance to those visiting and working in towns.

Building Safety Fund

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many applications his Department has received to the Building Safety Fund for the remediation of unsafe non-ACM cladding systems as of 10 September 2020.

Christopher Pincher: We are currently reviewing registrations to the Building Safety Fund and verifying the registration data. We will publish registration statistics in September.

Social Rented Housing: Waiting Lists

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people are on the waiting list nationally for social housing.

Christopher Pincher: Data on the number of households on social housing waiting lists is published in MHCLG's Live Table 600, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-rents-lettings-and-tenancies

Property Development: Infrastructure

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how the proposed new infrastructure levy to replace section 106 agreements will operate.

Christopher Pincher: In the Planning for the Future White Paper we propose that the existing parallel regimes for securing developer contributions, the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and section 106 planning obligations, are replaced with a new, consolidated ‘Infrastructure Levy’.The new Levy will raise at least as much value as is currently captured through CIL and section 106. We are exploring a number of different options for setting the Levy, including but not limited to a single national rate. The rate charged will depend on the approach taken. We will assess a number of different options for the setting of the Levy rates, in order to establish optimal approach.The new Levy will be charged on the final value of a development and will include a value-based minimum threshold below which the levy is not charged, to prevent low viability development becoming unviable.

Housing Act 1988

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to repeal section 21 of the Housing Act 1988.

Christopher Pincher: The Government has established an unprecedented package of support to protect renters throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, including measures to prevent tenants being evicted for 12 months.I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 75319 on 24 July 2020.

Parking: Large Goods Vehicles

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 September 2020 to Question 86071 on Parking: Large Goods Vehicles, which Department or Agency he is referring to as Border Departments; and who the responsible Minister is.

Christopher Pincher: Border department means any of:(a) the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs;(b) the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy;(c) the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; or(d) the Secretary of State for Transport. Ministers’ responsibilities are defined by their own departments and published on Gov.uk

Ministry of Defence

Iran: International Military Services

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the amount of outstanding debt is owed to Iran by International Military Service Ltd incurred on purchases of UK manufactured military equipment in the 1970s; and what steps his Department is taking to lawfully discharge that debt.

Jeremy Quin: It is acknowledged that there is a debt to be paid but it would be inappropriate to comment further while legal proceedings are ongoing. The Government continues to explore every avenue for the lawful discharge of that debt.

Ministry of Defence: Staff

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many members of staff in their Department have one or more of the words equality, diversity, inclusion, gender, LGBT or race in their job title.

Johnny Mercer: 45 civilian positions in the Ministry of Defence and its Executive Agencies specifically include one or more of the words equality, diversity, inclusion, gender, LGBT or race in their job title as recorded by the electronic Human Resources Management System.

Ministry of Defence: Staff

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many civilian employees (a) his Department has and (b) have joined as new employees in each of the last five years.

Johnny Mercer: The information is published on the gov.uk website and can be found at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mod-biannual-civilian-personnel-statisticsindex

Veterans: Civil Proceedings

Jonathan Gullis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure veterans are protected from vexatious claims.

Johnny Mercer: On 18 March 2020 the Government introduced the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill to help tackle vexatious claims and the cycle of reinvestigations against our Armed Forces personnel and veterans. Due to the impact of COVID on parliamentary business, the progression of the Bill to Second Reading has been delayed, but is now planned for 23 September.In addition to the Overseas Operations Bill, we intend taking forward some of the key recommendations from HH Lyons' 2017 review to improve the Service Justice System, including Sir Jon Murphy's recommendation for the establishment of a tri-Service Defence Serious Crime Unit (DSCU), and for an oversight body for complaints against the Service Police. These measures are intended to deliver a stronger, more collaborative and effective role for the Service Police within the Service Justice System.

Armed Forces: Employment

Kirsten Oswald: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of employment preparedness and support programmes offered to military personnel prior to and immediately post-service.

Johnny Mercer: The Ministry of Defence provides comprehensive resettlement support for people leaving the Armed Forces to help them make the transition to civilian life. The long-established Career Transition Partnership (CTP) provides guidance to Service leavers in their transition from military to civilian life through a range of career and employment support services including skills development workshops, seminars, resettlement training advice, vocational training courses, career consultancy, one-to-one sessions and job finding support. A bespoke service is provided for the most vulnerable leavers through the CTP resettlement pathway.?This function is called CTP Assist and delivers an individualised, needs-based service to those?Service personnel who face the greatest barriers to employment as a consequence of their medical conditions.?This comprehensive employment support is made available to all Service personnel subject to medical discharge in order to maximise their?successful transition to civilian life.?All military personnel can access CTP two years before leaving and within two years of leaving; beyond that point they can access The Forces Employment Charity (RFEA) which provides support for life. Statistics on the estimated employment outcomes for ex-Service personnel who used the services provided by CTP can be accessed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/career-transition-partnership-ex-service-personnel-employment-outcomes-statistics-index. Of the 2018-19 UK Regular Service leavers who used a billable CTP service and reported their employment outcomes six months after leaving service, 86 per cent were employed. As part of the ten-year vision articulated in the Strategy for our Veterans, in October 2019 the Ministry of Defence introduced a ‘Defence Holistic Transition’ policy, which brings together a wide range of support for Service leavers and their families in their transition to civilian life including help with life's basic needs such as registering with a doctor or a dentist, or much more intensive help for those with complex needs (including housing, budgeting, debt, wellbeing and children’s education). ‘Defence Transition Services’ (DTS) was established at the same time, to support those Service leavers who face the greatest challenges to making a successful transition to civilian life, including those who are medically discharged. The full-spectrum service is available to all Service leavers exiting the Armed Forces and is based on the needs of the individual, providing the specific support they may need and interventions to ensure issues are resolved. This support extends for two years after discharge and longer if necessary.

Ministry of Defence: Training

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much the Department spent on unconscious bias training in each of the last five years.

Johnny Mercer: Unconscious Bias training is undertaken by members of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) via an e-learning package on the Civil Service Learning Platform. The learning is free at the point of use, so there is no associated per-person cost for this training to be carried out. The MOD contributes to the funding of Civil Service HR, including Civil Service Learning annually, therefore it is not possible to disaggregate the cost of Unconscious Bias training from the wider budget.

Department for Work and Pensions

Universal Credit

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claims in each parliamentary constituency had deductions taken from them in the most recent month for which data is available; what the average deduction was in each constituency; and what proportion of each sum was deducted to repay advance payments.

Will Quince: The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Unemployment and Vacancies

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her latest estimate is of the (a) job vacancy rate and (b) unemployment rate in each region and nation of the UK.

Mims Davies: The official statistics on vacancies are not available for each region and nation of the UK. However, experimental statistics on online job adverts are available from ONS at a regional level. These statistics are provided by ONS in partnership with Adzuna (an online job search engine). Statistics on regional unemployment can be found here.

Jobcentres: Staff

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what core training is undertaken by new work coaches on supporting people with special needs or disabilities who are looking for work.

Mims Davies: Work Coaches receive training to support all claimants with complex needs, including those with special needs or disabilities and have access to guidance, complex needs toolkit and district provision toolkit, that provide local support for claimants who require additional and specialist support when looking for work.This would include referral or sign positing to specialist support for any specific needs or work support.Training and access to information on diversity and inclusion, disability confidence, unconscious bias, help to claim and modern day slavery.Specific Benefit training for Work Coaches includes:- How to identify and support claimants with complex needs including special needs or disabilities- How we can provide extra support for example, referral to specialist employment advisers, money guidance, requirement for appointees- Working with appointees to support the claimants- Using Complex needs toolkit and District provision toolkit, for local provision and support

Social Fund: Annual Reports

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason a Social Fund Annual Report has not been published since November 2018.

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to publish the next Social Fund Annual Report.

Mims Davies: The publication of the Social Fund Annual Report 2018/19 includes data that was initially published in the Social Fund Account 2018/19. Publication of the Social Fund Account 2018/19 on GOV.UK was delayed by queries from the National Audit Office and by last minute changes to Parliamentary recess dates. It was finally published on 11 February 2020. The publication of the Social Fund Annual Report 2018/19 was subsequently delayed by urgent COVID-19 work, including the increase to the Funeral Expenses Payments additional costs limit from £700 to £1000, further changes to regulations as well as work with operations to improve the speed of processing. We aim to publish the Social Fund Annual Report 2018/19 by October. We aim to publish the Social Fund Annual Report 2019/20 by the end of November.

Kickstart Scheme

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many organisations in each region have applied to be representatives of the Kickstart scheme in the first week since that scheme was launched on 2 September 2020.

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of businesses that (a) will and (b) will not be eligible to sign up to the Kickstart scheme.

Mims Davies: The department is now processing many applications from across the UK, this is currently a clerical process, so reliable management information, particularly on geographical areas, is not yet available.

Kickstart Scheme

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to publish guidance on small business organisations becoming intermediaries in the Kickstart Scheme.

Mims Davies: Companies looking to recruit fewer than 30 Kickstart applicants are free to create their own consortiums or can find out who their local intermediaries are by speaking to their local jobcentre or by getting in touch with the employer team in their area. Guidance is available at:  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-can-apply-for-a-grant-as-a-representative-of-a-group-of-employers-through-the-kickstart-scheme  This guidance will continue to be updated as the Kickstart Scheme evolves, setting out how an employer or organisation can take advantage of the scheme.

Employment: Disability

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with Centrepoint on supporting young people with special needs or disabilities who are looking for work.

Justin Tomlinson: Ministers are committed to engaging with stakeholders like Centrepoint. The Minister for Welfare Delivery has met with Centrepoint a number of times over the last 12 months. His conversations with them tend to be wide-ranging and include topics such as support for disadvantaged young people who are in work, claiming benefits or looking for work. The Government will be bringing forward a Green Paper on health and disability support, which will focus on how the welfare system can better meet the needs of people with disabilities and health conditions. The Green Paper will be strongly influenced by the views of disabled people and representatives from disability organisations, drawing on the significant engagement we have conducted, which will continue over the Autumn The National Strategy for Disabled People is a key manifesto commitment for this Government and its delivery remains important for ministers, including No. 10. Its significance is even greater as we re-build the UK's economy and society in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We want to achieve practical changes for disabled people, which remove barriers and increase opportunity. We are engaging widely with stakeholders and will ensure disabled people can directly share their views and insights on their key challenges. We plan to publish this high ambition strategy in Spring 2021.

Statutory Sick Pay: Coronavirus

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that statutory sick pay is available to NHS health and social care staff (a) whose covid-19 symptoms extend beyond two weeks and (b) who are affected by long covid and unable to return to work.

Justin Tomlinson: Individuals should tell their employer that symptoms of coronavirus (Covid-19) persist and that they must continue to self-isolate. Individuals will be eligible for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) if they have tested positive for coronavirus and are staying at home and self-isolating for 10 days, or until they no longer have symptoms, and they are not able to work as a result. Individuals should continue to self-isolate beyond 10 days if they still have symptoms other than a cough or loss of sense of smell or taste. SSP remains available to individuals who are unable to work because of sickness resulting from Covid-19 or otherwise. Other SSP eligibility criteria will apply. Where an individual’s income is reduced while off work sick and they require further financial support, for example where they are not eligible for SSP, they may be able to claim Universal Credit and new style Employment and Support Allowance, depending on their individual circumstances.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control

Tom Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to (a) carry out and (b) take into account additional wildlife surveillance when making his decision on whether to extend the badger culling programme.

Victoria Prentis: On 7 September Natural England published licences for areas that will undertake badger control operations in England this autumn. This includes the reauthorisation of licences for 33 existing areas alongside licences for 11 additional areas. All applications received were carefully assessed by Natural England to ensure that each cull company has suitable arrangements and plans in place to carry out an operation that is safe, effective and humane. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bovine-tb-authorisation-for-badger-control-in-2020 This operational publication is a continuation of the long-term strategy to tackle the animal disease Bovine TB which was published in April 2014. Prior surveillance for TB infection in badgers is not required to grant licences for the removal of badgers to control the spread of TB in the High Risk and Edge Areas of England.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Training

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much the Department spent on unconscious bias training in each of the last five years.

Victoria Prentis: Defra obtains unconscious bias training for Senior Civil Servants and delegated grades from Civil Service Learning (CSL)[1]. All CSL online training is provided free of charge at point of use to our staff. The information is in the table below: Central departmental spend on unconscious bias training 2015-20 Course typeFY 2015/16FY 2016/17FY 2017/18FY 2018/19FY 2019/20Unconscious bias workshop(s)£2,833£21,095Nil spendNil spendNil spend Data source: Records of spend against a central learning and development budget. [1] It is mandatory for civil servants to use CSL for their learning.

Air Pollution

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that local authorities are making people aware of air quality levels in their areas.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure local authorities make (a) young and (b) vulnerable people within their area aware of the health risks of air pollution.

Rebecca Pow: Through the statutory Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) framework, local authorities are required to assess air quality in their area and prepare an Annual Status Report providing a summary of the state of local air quality, associated health impacts and the progress on actions the local authority is taking to improve air quality. LAQM statutory guidance requires the local authority to make these reports available to the public and local stakeholders through their website. Defra’s Air Quality Grant scheme provides funding to local authorities and supports schemes which help councils develop and implement measures to benefit local communities, including campaigns to promote greater air quality awareness. In the Environment Bill we are mandating a regular cycle of reviews for the Air Quality Strategy, and this will provide an opportunity to outline measures focused on protecting those most vulnerable to air pollution.

Air Pollution

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure strong partnerships between local authorities and the private sector to tackle roadside air pollution.

Rebecca Pow: The Government is working with local authorities to develop clean air plans to tackle previously identified nitrogen dioxide exceedances, and encourages local authorities to actively engage with local businesses in the development of these plans. Additionally Defra’s air quality grant scheme provides funding to local authorities to develop and implement measures to benefit local communities. For example, the 2019/20 air quality grant awarded funds to projects to reduce emissions from the delivery of goods and services for businesses, and to encourage up take of electric taxis.

Air Pollution

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that local authorities have the (a) knowledge and (b) capacity to tackle local air pollution.

Rebecca Pow: Under the Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) framework, local authorities are responsible for mitigation of air pollution hot spots in areas where people may be exposed. Defra provides technical and policy guidance to local authorities to assist them in meeting these LAQM responsibilities. Defra also provides technical support to local authorities via a dedicated local air quality management Helpdesk (phone, email and webpage) and calculation tools to support local authorities in their monitoring and modelling efforts. Through the Environment Bill we are improving the LAQM framework to enable greater local action on air pollution by widening the range of bodies that play a role in improving local air quality, including neighbouring local authorities and relevant public bodies, ensuring action is taken by all key players to tackle local pollution sources and to improve air quality locally. We have also committed to a review of the National Air Quality Strategy, which will look to build the capacity of local delivery partners to effectively tackle localised air quality issues.

Sewage: Waste Disposal

James Wild: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for how many hours and on how many occasions combined sewer outflows of each water company have discharged sewage in each year since 2015.

Rebecca Pow: The Environment Agency holds data for storm overflows, which includes combined sewer overflows, storm discharges at sewage treatment inlet works, storm tank overflows and storm overflows at pumping stations. Between 2015 and 2020, water and sewage companies embarked on an initiative to monitor the vast majority of storm overflows in England. The data below is informed by this monitoring program and records the number of spills from storm overflows monitored. It is important to note that these data sets have grown from 2016. Initially, it took a year for monitors to be installed and to produce annual data. Therefore data is provided from 2016-2019. To contextualise the number of spills recorded, the numbers of storm overflows monitored that year should also be considered.  2016201720182019Number of storm overflows monitored8622,5156,1828,276Number of recorded spill events12,63733,159146,930292,864

Sewage: Waste Disposal

James Wild: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of the combined sewer overflows of each water company have monitoring equipment in place.

Rebecca Pow: The Environment Agency hold data for storm overflows, which includes combined sewer overflows, storm discharges at sewage treatment inlet works, storm tank overflows and storm overflows at pumping stations. As of 31 December 2019 the numbers of storm overflows and percentage monitored by each Water and Sewerage Company were: CompanyTotal number of storm overflow dischargesNumber Monitored in 2019 (regulatory and non-regulatory)Percentage Monitored in 2019 (regulatory and non-regulatory)Anglian Water164670943Dwr Cymru Welsh Water2318211091Northumbrian Water1518148798Severn Trent2954230878Hafren Dyfrdwy594881South West Water120975963Southern Water986986100Thames Water47237780United Utilities2273164973Wessex Water128962849Yorkshire Water2246218597TOTALS169701324678 The numbers monitored were supplied to the Environment Agency from the Water and Sewerage Companies in England and Wales. Further monitoring is planned for the period 2020 to 2025 with more than a 1,000 monitoring installations.

Home Office

Home Office: Data Protection

Holly Lynch: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many data breaches have been reported by HM Passport Office’s security team since the 23 March 2020.

Chris Philp: From 23 March to 31 August 2020 inclusive, Her Majesty’s Passport Office submitted 279 Data Incident Reports and 277 were assessed as constituting Personal Data Breaches. From 23 March to 30 June HM Passport Office received 545,806 passport applications.

Asylum: Families

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will improve the accessibility of legal routes of immigration into the UK to facilitate the reunification of families.

Chris Philp: The UK already provides a number of legal routes for families to reunite in the UK. In particular:1) Families can apply under the family Immigration Rules where there is a qualifying partner or child (British or lived continuously in the UK for at least seven years) and it is unreasonable to expect family life to continue outside the UK or for the child to leave.2) Refugee family reunion policy allows a partner and children under 18 of those granted protection in the UK to join them here, if they formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country.3) The Dublin III Regulation contains provisions enabling family reunification. In 2019 the UK transferred in 528 people under these provisions. The UK will remain part of the Dublin Regulation until the end of the transition period. Mechanisms for family reunification beyond the transition period is subject to negotiations.

Visas: EU Countries

Ronnie Cowan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions (a) Ministers and (b) officials of her Department have had with EU counterparts on the expansion of visa-free travel between the UK and the EU after the end of the transition period.

Kevin Foster: For those taking short trips to the UK, it is UK’s intention EU, EEA and Swiss citizens will not be required to obtain a visa and will be able to visit under, our standard visitor rules for non-visa nationals, for up to 180 days. Those coming to live and work in the UK will be subject to the arrangements in the new Points Based Immigration System.The EU has already legislated UK nationals will not need a visa when travelling to the Schengen area for short stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period. This will apply from the end of the transition period to all UK nationals travelling to and within the Schengen area for purposes such as tourism.Stays beyond the standard Schengen visa-free allocation from 1 January 2021 onwards will be for individual Member States to decide and implement through domestic entry rules and visa arrangements for non-EU citizens.The UK continues to urge the EU to reflect on the more generous position the UK’s standard visitor rules for non-visa nationals offers compared to the position they have legislated for UK nationals in the EU.

Immigration

Lloyd Russell-Moyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 7 September 2020 to Question 84331 on Immigration, whether people will be able to make applications in October 2020.

Kevin Foster: On 10 September the Home Office laid Immigration Rules to enable the new points-based Student Route and Child Student routes to open on 5 October 2020. Eligible applicants will be able to apply under these routes from that date.The opening of these routes is a significant milestone in the delivery of the UK’s new points-based immigration system. The Skilled Worker route will open later this year.

Biometric Residence Permits: Migrant Workers

Holly Lynch: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's news story of 31 March 2020, NHS frontline workers visas extended so they can focus on fighting coronavirus, how many healthcare workers’ biometric residence permit renewals her Department (a) is currently processing and (b) has processed; and what the (i) average and (ii) longest length of time her Department has spent on processing such a renewal.

Kevin Foster: Published statistics pertaining to the number of NHS visas extended as of June 2020, can be found via the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2020Updated statistics regarding those extended after this date will be published in future.

Biometrics: Families

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what provisions are being made for families of three or more to register their biometrics where (a) the closest UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services centres are no longer able to accommodate them due restrictions due to the covid-19 outbreak and (b) travelling a longer distance to an alternative centre is not viable.

Kevin Foster: Following initial closures as a result of global Covid-19 restrictions, UK Visa and Citizenship Application Service (UKVCAS) service points in the UK began to reopen from the 1 June in locations where it is safe to do so and in accordance with public health guidance in each country.The additional measures UKVCAS have put in place to ensure the safety and wellbeing of customers and staff mean we are not currently able to offer the same number of locations or volume of appointments across all service points as they did before COVID-19. UKVI have been working closely with Sopra Steria Limited, who run the UKVCAS network on our behalf to tackle the significant demand for appointments in order to accelerate the application process.In response to the impact of COVID-19 on UKVI services, we have also introduced a biometric reuse process which allows UKVI to reuse previously submitted biometrics in order to assess visa and citizenship applications which means eligible customers won’t have to visit a UKVCAS service point to enrol new biometrics. Provided all family members qualify, they will be eligible for biometric reuse and eligible customers are being contacted directly.If anyone needs to attend a physical UKVCAS appointment but is unable to travel because of coronavirus or related restrictions, they should contact UKVI through the Coronavirus Immigration Hotline (CIH) which can be reached via email or on the phone, on 0800 678 1767. Further details can be found here:https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-advice-for-uk-visa-applicants-and-temporary-uk-residents

Extinction Rebellion: Demonstrations

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers were deployed to police Extinction Rebellion protests between 31 August to 11 September 2020.

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the total cost to the public purse was of policing Extinction Rebellion protests between 31 August and 11 September 2020.

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were arrested during police Extinction Rebellion protests between 31 August to 11 September 2020.

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, from which police forces officers were deployed during the Extinction Rebellion protests from 31 August to 11 September 2020.

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how often police helicopters were used and at what cost to the public purse during the Extinction Rebellion protests from 31 August to 11 September 2020.

Kit Malthouse: The management of protests, including the tactics they use; their cost; and their resourcing, is an operational matter for the police.

Visas: Health Professions

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to extend the visas of (a) podiatrists and (b) other allied health professionals due to the covid-19 outbreak; and if she will make a statement.

Kevin Foster: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government is extending the visas for a range of healthcare professionals, working for the NHS and independent health and care providers, where their current visa expires between 31 March and 1 October.Eligible occupations, agreed with the Department for Health and Social Care, include podiatrists. Guidance on who is eligible for this automatic extension offer can already be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-advice-for-uk-visa-applicants-and-temporary-uk-residents#if-youre-working-for-the-nhs.This offer also applies to their eligible family members. This 12-month extension offer is free and those benefitting will not have to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge.

Slavery: Victims

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will conduct an inquiry into (a) trends in the number of British citizens becoming victims of modern slavery and (b) for what reasons those British citizens are so becoming victims of modern slavery.

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to increase awareness among the general public of modern slavery; and what steps her Department is taking to educate the general public on how to (a) identify the signs of and (b) report instances of modern slavery.

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that victims of (a) modern slavery and (b) human trafficking are supported by her Department; and what steps she is taking to enhance police engagement with those victims to help dismantle those criminal networks.

Victoria Atkins: The Government is committed to tackling the heinous crime of modern slavery; ensuring that victims are provided with the support they need to begin rebuilding their lives and that those responsible are prosecuted. In 2019, potential victims referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in the UK came from 168 different nationalities. British nationals were the most common. The majority of potential victims, 5,866 (55%) reported that they were exploited as an adult, while 4,550 (43%) were referred for exploitation that occurred as a child. The number of NRM referrals has increased every year since the NRM was introduced in 2009. The reasons for an increase in NRM referrals are likely to include: greater awareness of the NRM; improved law enforcement activity; and an increase in the recorded NRM referrals related to the county lines criminal business model.The Home Office continues to work with a range of partners to identify and deliver effective prevention activity. This includes successful awareness raising initiatives such as the Government’s ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ campaign and the #SlaveryonYourDoorstep campaign led by CrimeStoppers. We also have a dedicated GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/modern-slavery-training-resource-page/modern-slavery-training-resource-pageresources page that provides up-to-date information on how to spot the signs of modern slavery and report concerns.In March we published statutory guidance under section 49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. This guidance covers modern slavery indicators and how potential victims can be referred to the NRM and clarifies the roles and responsibilities of frontline staff and local stakeholders. The guidance also sets out the support victims are entitled to, providing a clear framework of support for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. This support is accessed through the NRM and applies equally to victims of modern slavery and trafficking and may include accommodation, financial assistance, medical care, counselling and access to legal aid.Local authorities are responsible for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children in their area. In addition, the Government is continuing the roll out of Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs) as part of the NRM Transformation Programme, focused on areas of highest need. ICTGs are currently available in one third of local authorities across England and Wales.In July, we launched an online modern slavery module for all First Responders. This training will enable them to effectively identify and refer, where appropriate, potential victims of modern slavery to the National Referral Mechanism.We have also allocated a further £2millon to continue funding the police this year under the new Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Programme. This funding will enable us to support the police to drive forward work to enhance their engagement with victims and increase modern slavery prosecutions. It also includes a new focus to build police capability to respond to organised immigration crime.

Human Trafficking: European Economic Area

Karen Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential for visa-free entry for EEA national visitors after the end of free movement to be abused by human traffickers to exploit EEA nationals in the UK; and what plans she has to prevent such exploitation.

Kevin Foster: At the end of the Transition Period EEA nationals will become subject to immigration control.The UK does not intend to subject EEA visitors to a visa requirement at the end of the transition period. Visitors to the UK are assessed against the same suitability and eligibility requirements regardless of nationality. The only difference between visa nationals and non-visa nationals is where the assessment of their suitability and eligibility for entry to the UK is carried out, therefore the absence of a visa requirement does not materially change the risk of being exploited.We continue to fulfil our public sector equality duties under s149 of the Equality Act 2010. ?We have prepared an overarching equality impactassessment (EIA) for the future points-based system. This will continue to be considered as policies are developed.We are carefully considering the conclusions made by the Windrush Lessons Learned Review?and?will ensure further evaluation is taken forward in line with these recommendations.

Immigrants: Finance

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many change of conditions applications have been made by people with no recourse to public funds by country of nationality of the main applicant in each quarter since quarter 3 of 2017.

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of change of conditions applications from people with no recourse to public funds were made by people who identified their gender as (a) female, (b) male and (c) unspecified, in each quarter since quarter 3 of 2017.

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of change of conditions applications from people with no recourse to public funds were made by people who identified themselves as having disabilities or health issues, in each quarter since quarter 3 of 2017.

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of change of conditions applications were made by people with dependents and with no recourse to public funds and who had the relationship status (a) single, (b) married or a civil partner, (c) unmarried partner, (d) divorced or civil partnership dissolved, (e) separated and (f) widowed or a surviving civil partner in each quarter since quarter 3 of 2017.

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many change of conditions applications made by people with no recourse to public funds were re-applications in each quarter since quarter 3 of 2017; and what proportion of those re-applications were (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful.

Kevin Foster: Following previous questions and the commitment given to UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), Change of Conditions information is now part of the transparency data which can be found here:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-protection-data-august-2020. The relevant data is in tab CoC_01.Currently we cannot provide the data requested because this information is not readily available and would require a more detailed examination of all Change of Conditions cases to establish whether the data requested is held and would meet the quality requirements for release.As part of the regular publication of this data the Home Office will review whether the data can be meaningfully broken down any further.

Windrush Generation: Compensation

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Windrush Compensation Scheme cases have been closed in each month since April 2019.

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff in her Department are  assigned to work on the Windrush Compensation Scheme.

Priti Patel: Information on the number of claims on which compensation has been paid under the Windrush Compensation Scheme is available to view on GOV.UK at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/windrush-compensation-scheme-data-august-2020. Data also refers to the number of zero entitlement claims and those rejected on eligibility grounds.We deploy staff flexibly across different areas. We now have over 100 staff working on the Windrush Compensation Scheme, including the Windrush Helpline, casework, quality assurance, payment and review functions.

Scotland Office

Mothers and Pregnancy: Scotland

Dr Lisa Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what discussions his Department has had with the Scottish Government on collaboration to provide improved support for (a) pregnant women and (b) mothers with young children.

Mr Alister Jack: Maternal and Child health is a policy matter devolved to the Scottish Government. The UK Government and the Devolved Administrations cooperate and share lessons and best practice in this important policy area through a number of forums, to improve policy across the UK.

Scotland Office: Training

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how much the Department spent on unconscious bias training in each of the last five years.

Mr Alister Jack: Staff at the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland undertake unconscious bias training through Civil Service Learning at no direct cost to the Office.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office

Press Conferences: Coronavirus

Ian Lavery: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of re-introducing the daily covid-19 briefings that took place in Downing Street that included questions and answers.

Julia Lopez: The Government remains committed to providing the public with the information they need relating to Coronavirus. We will keep under review how best to provide this information, and the Prime Minister held a Covid-19 brief on 9 September.

Government Assistance

Louise Haigh: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, on how many occasions the Government has made representations on state aid at the (a) Joint Committee and (b) Specialised Committee on the Protocol on Northern Ireland.

Penny Mordaunt: Further to Rule 10, Annex VIII of the Withdrawal Agreement, the meetings of the Joint Committee shall be confidential.

Construction: Procurement

Dr Luke Evans: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to encourage the use of British companies as part of public sector procurement for construction projects.

Julia Lopez: The £292bn of annual public sector procurement spend has a key role to play in the economic recovery of the UK.The UK’s exit from the EU offers a huge opportunity to reform public procurement so that it better meets this country’s needs. Simpler, less bureaucratic processes for businesses and better commercial outcomes for our public bodies. We will publish our reform proposals in due course.

Disability: Reviews

Marion Fellows: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he estimates each Department will have completed their reviews in relation to the National Strategy for Disabled People.

Julia Lopez: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by Justin Tomlinson MP on 10 September 2020.

Roads: Freight

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to a recent memorandum from the Cabinet Office Border and Protocol Delivery Group, what the 10 new IT systems are that the logistics industry will have to deal with from 1 January 2021; and which of those 10 are still in development.

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will place in the Library a copy of the recent memorandum by the Cabinet Office Border and Protocol Delivery Group.

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what contingency plans he has put in place in the event that implementation of the (a) Smart Freight Service and (b) Goods Vehicle Movement Service is delayed.

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential economic effect on businesses in the event that there are (a) significant queues and delays on the roads approaching ports in the UK as predicted in the Border Operating Model as a result of a high number of HGVs not having the correct documentation and (b) a delay in rolling out new IT systems.

Penny Mordaunt: In accordance with standard practice, the Government does not comment on leaked documents. There are a number of new systems that traders and hauliers will need to engage with both in the UK and EU.Delivery is on track, however as part of standard programme delivery, contingencies are always prepared.I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave on 8 September.

Business: Brexit

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what metrics his Department is using to help ensure business preparedness by the end of the transition period.

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what existing Government IT systems that have not previously been used by UK firms exporting to the EU will be needed to ensure that businesses are ready by the end of the transition period.

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what new Government infrastructure will be needed to ensure that businesses are ready by the end of the transition period.

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of which ports plan to operate a paper-based office of transit.

Penny Mordaunt: Further to the statement of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on 13 July, Government has launched a campaign to communicate the actions businesses and individuals need to take to prepare for the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020. We have established a core set of metrics for measuring the impact of the campaign drawing on our experience of the previous campaign.The Government has also announced an unprecedented £705 million package of investment for border infrastructure, staff and technology to ensure our border systems are fully operational after the end of the transition period. As set out on 13 July, the Government will provide a breakdown of spend on ports by region and by port in due course. The funding will however include making available up to £470 million to build port and inland infrastructure needed to strengthen the UK’s border facilities and a £235 million investment in staffing and IT systems.

Local Authorities: Scotland

Andrew Bowie: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to enable UK Government support of local authorities in Scotland under the provisions of the UK internal market Bill.

Chloe Smith: The UK Internal Market Bill includes a power that will enable the UK Government to spend on infrastructure, economic development, culture, sport, and to support educational and training activities and exchanges both within the UK and internationally. Much of this was previously done at EU level.The power means that we can provide funding to organisations to deliver investments for these purposes, including local authorities. But responsibilities for delivering public services in areas of devolved competence remain with devolved administrations.

Northern Ireland Office

Hydrogen: Northern Ireland

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment he has made of the role that Northern Ireland can play in the UK's hydrogen strategy; and what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on the UK's hydrogen strategy.

Mr Robin Walker: As the Prime Minister stated in July, this Government is committed to investing massively in hydrogen. Hydrogen technology, particularly green hydrogen technology, has the potential to support the UK in reaching its target of net zero emissions by 2050 and this will benefit all parts of the Union. Northern Ireland can play a big part in this through innovations such as the world’s first hydrogen-electric double-decker bus by Wrightbus and proposed innovation by Stratospheric Platforms for a hydrogen-powered solution for the UK’s 5G network. Ministers and officials continue to engage with BEIS on the strategy itself and also with our counterparts in the Northern Ireland Executive, to find a funding solution that is specific to Northern Ireland. I spoke with both BEIS Ministers, the Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP and Nadhim Zahawi MP over the summer and we will continue to explore all avenues in support of advancing this technology in Northern Ireland.

Royal Ulster Constabulary: Disclosure of Information

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of the 3 September 2020 decision of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers on H46-44 McKerr group v the United Kingdom (Application No. 28883/95).

Mr Robin Walker: The Government has noted the decision of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers and remains committed to introducing legislation to address the legacy of Northern Ireland’s past as soon as possible.

Treasury

Non-domestic Rates

Steve McCabe: To ask the Chancellor of Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the level of business rates paid by (a) public houses and (b) other businesses with similar turnover.

Jesse Norman: In March the Chancellor announced a business rates holiday for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, irrespective of rateable value. This means that pubs in England will pay no business rates this year. Combined with Small Business Rates Relief, over 1 million ratepayers will pay no business rates in 2020-21. This is more than half of all properties in England.

Revenue and Customs: Pay

Apsana Begum: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of HMRC compliance with the requirement in Section 3.1.8 of the Civil Service Management Code that time off with pay for safety representatives will not be set against facility time allowed under existing arrangements.

Jesse Norman: As a department HMRC have an obligation to provide reasonable paid time off to recognised trade union representatives to undertake trade union duties. This will include paid time off as necessary for safety representatives as set out in section 3.1.8 of the Civil Service Management Code. HMRC have a legislative obligation, set out in the Trade Union Act (2016), that information relating to facility time for relevant union officials is published annually, with facility time defined by that Act as including time off taken by a relevant union official that is permitted by the official’s employer, including where this arises under “regulations made under section 2(4) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974”.

Holyhead Port: Customs

Hywel Williams: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has identified an inland customs clearance area for Holyhead port.

Jesse Norman: HMRC are working closely across Government and with ports to understand requirements and implement infrastructure changes in line with the support announced by the Government. As well as engaging with ports to understand what infrastructure may be required, HMRC are reviewing a number of potential sites which are close to ports, and near strategic road networks, including options to support Holyhead.

Holyhead Port: Customs

Hywel Williams: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on customs clearance areas for Holyhead port.

Jesse Norman: Treasury ministers and officials meet with a wide range of stakeholders across the public and private sector as part of policy development and implementation. In addition, HMRC hold regular discussions at working level with the Welsh Government concerning the need for clearance facilities for traffic moving through the port of Holyhead. They are also engaging with Anglesey County Council.

Parking: Large Goods Vehicles

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 10 September 2020 to Question 85972, what scoping exercises his Department undertook to determine the most appropriate local authority locations for the placement of lorry parks, prior to the Town and Country Planning (Border Facilities and Infrastructure) (EU Exit) (England) Special Development Order 2020 being laid before Parliament on 1 September 2020.

Jesse Norman: The local authority areas have been identified within the Order by the relevant departments so that should inland border facilities be required to support relevant ports, these can be provided within a reasonable distance of a port and/or strategic highway network.

Food: Wholesale Trade

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason business rate relief has not been made available to food and wholesale businesses during the covid-19 outbreak.

Jesse Norman: The Government has provided enhanced support to the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors through business rates relief given the direct and acute impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on those sectors. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has published guidance for local authorities on eligible properties. As set out in the guidance, support is targeted at premises that are wholly or mainly being used as shops, restaurants, cafes, drinking establishments, cinemas and live music venues; for assembly and leisure; or as hotels, guest and boarding premises, and self-catering accommodation. It is for local authorities to determine eligibility for reliefs, having regard to guidance issued by the Government. A range of further measures to support all businesses, including those not eligible for the business rates holiday such as wholesalers, has also been made available.

Events Industry: Coronavirus

Sir George Howarth: What fiscal steps he is taking to help companies in the live entertainment industry remain in business during the covid-19 outbreak.

Kemi Badenoch: The Government has announced unprecedented support for businesses during the pandemic, including those in the live entertainment industry. Measures include a £1.57 billion fund to support the cultural sectors including live music, theatre and performing arts, and a temporary reduction in VAT to boost the tourism and hospitality industries, for example by reducing the cost of admission to concerts, theatres, fairs, exhibitions and similar events.

Economic Situation

Daniel Zeichner: What steps he is taking to support regional economies.

Navendu Mishra: What steps he is taking to support regional economies.

John Glen: We recognise that every region will be feeling the impacts of this crisis and the Government has responded to the challenges of Covid-19 through unprecedented support for business and workers across the country. At the Summer Economic Update, the Chancellor announced the Government’s plan to support jobs in every region through upgrades to local infrastructure, boosting skills, and new employment support schemes. This builds on our commitment at Budget to invest in our towns, cities, people and places.

Credit

Stella Creasy: What steps his Department is taking to help ensure that buy now pay later lenders comply with guidance set out by the (a) Financial Conduct Authority and (b) Advertising Standards Agency.

John Glen: Where a buy now pay later lender is offering a regulated credit agreement, it must be authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Where an authorised firm breaches FCA rules and guidance, the FCA is able to take action against them. Where a firm breaks the UK Advertising Codes, the Advertising Standards Authority is able to ban those advertisements.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

Robert Halfon: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department plans to publish local data on the cost to the public purse of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

Robert Halfon: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost is of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in Harlow to date.

Jesse Norman: The Government has no plans to publish local data on the costs of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. This is because HM Revenue and Customs do not have complete data for the value of claims by area. Claims are made by employers in respect of their PAYE schemes and the scheme addresses tend to reflect business headquarters and payroll office locations (where these differ) rather than where employees live or work. Using scheme level data would potentially give a misleading picture. In addition, for claims for fewer than 100 employees HMRC do not collect the amount claimed for each employment, so the data at employment level is incomplete. For these reasons, the cost of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in Harlow is unavailable.

Treasury: Training

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much the Department spent on unconscious bias training in each of the last five years.

Kemi Badenoch: The information requested on spend is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, there is unconscious bias training available to all staff, at no cost to the department, via Civil Service learning.

Sixth Form Education: Finance

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to introduce a capital expansion fund for sixth form providers.

Steve Barclay: Decisions on departmental spending beyond 2020-21 will be taken as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review, which will be published in the autumn.

Sixth Form Education: Finance

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for sixth form education.

Steve Barclay: The Government keeps the level of funding for all public services under regular review. We have invested an additional £400 million for our sixth forms and colleges next year – the single biggest increase in a year for a decade. The Government has paid grant funded Further Education providers, including sixth forms, their scheduled payments throughout the 2019-20 academic year. We are ensuring that disruption this year does not affect future funding allocations for providers. Decisions on departmental spending beyond 2020-21 will be taken as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review, which will be published in the autumn.

Local Government Finance: Coronavirus

Andrew Bowie: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what financial support his Department has allocated to the Scottish Government to support local authorities with local covid-19 lockdowns.

Steve Barclay: To help the Scottish Government manage their coronavirus response, the UK government made an unprecedented upfront funding guarantee on 24 July. This guarantees the Scottish Government will receive at least £6.5bn in additional resource funding this year on top of the funding set out at the Spring Budget. Since matters of local government are a devolved responsibility, it is for the Scottish Government to decide how much of this funding they use to support Scottish local authorities.

Food: Wholesale Trade

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of financial support available to food and drink wholesalers who have been affected financially by the covid-19 outbreak.

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the financial effect of the covid-19 outbreak on food and drink wholesalers.

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to mitigate job losses in the food and drink wholesale sector as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

Kemi Badenoch: The Government has provided unprecedented levels of support for workers and businesses to protect, as much as possible, against the current economic emergency. Food and drink wholesalers are eligible for a number of these support schemes, with the most relevant likely to include: The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to help keep millions of people in employment;£10,000 cash grants for all business properties in receipt of Small Business Rates Relief and Rural Rates Relief;The Bounce Back Loan Scheme for small businesses to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000, with no interest payments or fees for the first 12 months. Food and drink wholesalers have also benefited from the recent Eat Out to Help Out Scheme which provided over 100 million half price meals during August and helped to protect the livelihoods of the 1.8 million people working in the hospitality sector.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Ice Skating: Coronavirus

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if the Government will publish the evidence which has informed its decision to keep ice rinks closed as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.

Nigel Huddleston: Sports and physical activity facilities play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active.The Government has made it clear that it will adopt a phased approach based on scientific and medical advice, and that the primary goal is to protect public health.Ice-skating rinks were able to reopen from 15 August. These facilities are able to offer on-site services to customers, provided they are COVID-secure and follow Government guidance. Elite athletes have been able to access specialist sports facilities for training purposes since mid-April.

Wrestling: Coronavirus

Alex Davies-Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department classifies professional (performance) wrestling as a sport or performance art for the purposes of observing covid-19 guidelines.

Alex Davies-Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what guidance his Department has published on the safe operation of professional wrestling training schools during the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.

Alex Davies-Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether professional wrestling matches and events are permitted under lockdown restrictions for performance art and theatre during the covid-19 outbreak.

Alex Davies-Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether professional wrestling matches and events are currently permitted to take place during the covid-19 outbreak.

Caroline Dinenage: For the purposes of observing Covid-19 guidelines, we advise participants and spectators of this form of wrestling to refer to both the Performance Arts Guidance (for managing rehearsals, training and audiences), and the Phased Return of Sport and Recreation Guidance (for guidance related to physical activity).Professional Activity, such as professional wrestling, is permitted in line with Stage 4 of the performing arts roadmap within venues that are able to host such activities in line with Covid secure guidance. From 14 September, venues such as theatres, concert halls and other entertainment venues that host such events will need to ensure they are Covid secure in line with the relevant guidance, and that groups within the audience are limited to six. Venues will also need to ensure that groups are kept separate from one another to ensure they do not mix and do not exceed the new legal limits and that they adhere to new legal requirements around track and trace.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Staff

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many members of staff in their Department have one or more of the words equality, diversity, inclusion, gender, LGBT or race in their job title.

Mr John Whittingdale: On 1st September 2020, 10 members of staff in DCMS had equality, diversity, inclusion, gender, LGBT or race in their job title. This includes staff working on diversity and inclusion policy for the department in the People and Workplace directorate, as well as diversity and inclusion across DCMS policy areas.

Remembrance Day: Coronavirus

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of covid-19 lockdown restrictions on Remembrance Sunday and related events.

Caroline Dinenage: We are planning for this year’s National Remembrance Sunday Service to take place on November 8. We will be putting in place a number of mitigations according to the official public health guidance so that this significant national event can take place safely. We will continue to monitor the situation and will make further changes should they become necessary.